The Experiment
by Link and Luigi
Summary: Because of their new found peace, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto have nothing to do. So, to fill their time, they decide to conduct a little age experiment on a few of their henchmen with one of Forge's new inventions. COMPLETED!
1. Forge's Crazy Invention!

Smo!

One day, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto were sitting around the fireplace in the Xavier mansion talking about literature.

"You know what?" Professor Xavier asked once there was a break in the conversation.  "Ever since we three became the best of friends, there's been a lot of downtime while we wait for some OTHER evil to threat mankind."

"Not that I'd have it any other way, but I must agree." Magneto added.

"What do you want to do?" asked Mystique.

"I was thinking that we could put our henchmen through another horrible ordeal for our entertainment." Professor Xavier replied.

"That's a good idea!" said Magneto.

"Yes but…what shall they do?" Mystique wondered.  "Last time we forced them to go on a race around Europe to gain teamwork skills."

"That was our problem." Professor Xavier said.  "We tortured them with good intentions!  This time we have to come up with pure evil to put them through with no thought of gaining anything except sick pleasure!"

"Wow, Charles, that was completely unexpected coming from you." Magneto said, shocked.

"Yes well, I haven't had much to do lately." Said Professor Xavier.

"What did you have in mind?" asked Mystique.

"Well…as I just said, I haven't had much to do lately…" Professor Xavier started.  "So I got one of my affiliates, Forge, to invent something of great interest for me in my state of boredom…"

"You're probably all wondering why we have called you here today." Said Magneto as a random assortment of Acolytes, Brotherhood and X-Men entered the main room area.  To be more specific, it was Remy, St. John, Pietro, Scott, Kitty, Wanda, Kurt and Lance.

"What's this about, Professor?" asked Scott.

"Well…" started Professor Xavier.  "You all remember last time when we ordered everyone to go on a trip around Europe…?"

There was a few loud groans.

"What, are we going around Africa or Asia this time?" St. John complained.

"No." said Mystique.  "We aren't partial to repeats.  Charles?"

"We're going to send you to a camp for children to see how you interact with the people there." Professor Xavier explained.

"That shouldn't be TOO bad." Said Kitty with a shrug.

"Are we gonna be counselors or what?" asked Kurt.

"Uh…not quite." Said Professor Xavier.  "Forge?"

At that point, Forge emerged from the shadows armed with his little dimension portal opening thing.  "Forge will explain our plans." Magneto said.

"When the Professor first approached me with his idea, I was a bit taken aback with the randomness and evilness of it." Forge said as he began turning a few dials on his dimension portaly thing.  "I thought it was kind of bizarre and strange for him to ask for what he did."

"Stop talking and just tell us!" Lance said impatiently.

"Well, we're going to send you to a camp…" Professor Xavier said, discretely gesturing to Forge to carry out his evil bidding.  Forge raised the machine and pressed a button.

There was a flash of bright purple light and winds and dramatic music and the whole shabang and then, it abruptly stopped.

"What did you do?!" gasped Kitty when she noticed that she was now swimming in her own clothing and was all small-ified.

"We took approximately eleven years off all of your lives so now you're all eleven years younger." Professor Xavier responded mysteriously.  "Now we shall enroll you in the camp for…"

"HANG ON!!" Mystique yelled, pointing at Remy who was not quite as small as everyone else.

"How old are YOU?!" Forge said as he fumbled with his machine, turned some more dials and then zapped Remy again so he shrunk a bit more.

"Aw…" Remy said sadly.  "Remy wasn't gonna say anything…"

"Why would you do this, Professor?!" asked Scott.

"We…uh…want to build…uh…teamwork skills…" Professor Xavier said tentatively.

"By making us SMALL?!" Pietro yelled.  "My clothes don't fit…!"

"Yes, about that…" Magneto said, pulling a bag out from behind his back.  "Considering your clothes don't fit at the moment, we purchased these for you.  You'll find your names written on the tags with sharpie so they don't wash off on all the clothes that are yours."

"You all should get ready to go." Said Mystique.  "The bus for camp leaves in an hour."


	2. The Wheels on the Bus

"Why would the Professor do this to us?!" Scott whined as he and the other seven waited outside clad in their new clothing in front of the institute for a bus to come and pick them up.

"The better question is…why are we going along with it?" Wanda added.

"How long is this camp?" Remy asked.

"OH NO!!" St. John gasped.

"What?!" everyone asked, turning around to make sure he was all right.

"I left my lighter in my large pants that I wore when I was still my regular size and age!!" St. John replied, feeling around in his pockets.

"Oh." Said everyone, shooting him a nasty look and turning back around.

Just then, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto came outside.  "Oh, why the long faces?" asked Mystique.

"Why did you choose US?" asked Kurt.

"We actually DO have reasoning behind this." Magneto said, looking at his partners in crime.  "We all got to choose three members from our team…"

"I only chose two." Said Mystique.

"But nonetheless, we had to choose people from our teams." Magneto continued, trying to ignore Mystique.  "Naturally, I chose my own son.  I was going to choose Victor and Piotr since they didn't get to go on the race but then I decided that maybe they would be thrown off and confused if I chose them to endure THIS so I chose you two instead."

"Great…" said Remy, St. John and Pietro.

"As for me…" Mystique said.  "I had to choose Wanda so that you two could be twins and wear the same thing."

"This is all YOUR fault!!" Wanda said, angrily turning to Pietro.

"And then I chose the names out of a hat as to be fair and came out with you, Lance." Mystique finished.

"As for me, I was just going to choose my first three X-Men…" Professor Xavier began but then he gave a heavy sigh.  "But Jean walked in on me and Forge discussing my plans so I couldn't very well put her through it."

"So _I _took her place?!" Kitty said angrily.

"Yes." Said Professor Xavier, bowing his head in shame.

"Oh look!" said Mystique.  "The bus!!"

All the people who were small but are usually not looked down the road to see there was a big yellow bus bouncing around with musical notes flying out of it on its way towards them.

"Now be good!" instructed Professor Xavier.  "We'll visit to see your teamwork building progress!"

"I think our teamwork is good enough." Said Kitty.

"Think of this as a punishment for failing the last test!" said Magneto.

"We didn't fail!" said Pietro.  "We ALL won at the end!"

"Time to get on the bus!" said Professor Xavier as the bus pulled up and opened its doors.  "Have fun!"

No one moved.

"Um…no." said Lance finally.

"Hey!" said Professor Xavier, Magneto and Mystique.

"Why SHOULD we?" asked Kurt.

"Because if you DON'T then we won't ever turn you back to normal!" Mystique declared.  Professor Xavier and Magneto each slapped her five.

"Well in that case…" said Remy as everyone boarded the bus.  Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto waved the crew off as the bus drove away off into the sunset.

Everyone sat down in pairs.  Remy sat with St. John, Scott with Kurt and then there was a dilemma because Lance wanted to sit with Kitty but Wanda REFUSED to sit with Pietro so Wanda and Kitty ended up sitting together and Pietro and Lance sat together.

"So how old do you think we are?" asked St. John to Remy.

"Well…Remy a lot older than you." Said Remy.

"The Professor said we went eleven years back." Said St. John.  "So I guess I'm five.  I don't know what happened with you.  You got zapped twice."

"Yeah, your guess is as good as Remy's." said Remy.

The two paused.

"MUST you speak in third person?" asked St. John.

"MUST you sit Indian style?" Remy retorted.  "You're taking up more 'den your half of the seat."

"I don't like how my feet don't touch the ground!" whined St. John as he straightened his legs out.

Meanwhile, in the seat in front of them…

"Hey, I can adjust my image inducer so that I look like my normal self!" said Kurt as he looked at his watch.

"Yeah but someone would be able to swipe their hand right through you." Scott pointed out.

"You're right!" said Kurt sadly.  "That would be really awkward!"

"How would you go about explaining something like that?" asked Scott.

"Well, when you're blue and fuzzy with the ability to teleport, you get pretty good at explaining things that can't be explained!" Kurt…explained.

"Oh I see." Said Scott with a nod.

Meanwhile, in the seat in front of THEM…

"Like…why'd you wear the same thing as Pietro?" Kitty asked Wanda because she just can't stand horrible silences!

"What?!" Wanda demanded, looking down at her little pink dress.  "I'm wearing the same thing as Pietro?!"  Then she stopped.  "Why is Pietro wearing a little pink dress?"

"Well…he's wearing an outfit that's the same." Kitty explained.  "It's blue and not a dress.  Your outfits must have been a set that parents buy especially for their twins that are male and female."

"I refuse to be caught wearing the same thing as my horrible brother!" Wanda declared.  "Where's my suitcase?!"

"It's in the compartment under us." Said Kitty.  "I don't think we can access it except from the outside…"

Meanwhile, as we go even further to the seat in front of THEM!!

"I don't feel good…" Pietro complained as he looked out the window.  "My tummy hurts…"

"Your what hurts?" Lance said, raising an eyebrow.

"My stomach…" Pietro said.  "It hurts…"

"Are you carsick or something?" Lance asked.

"Yeah…I think so…" Pietro answered.  "I don't usually get carsick…it's this stupid bandana!  It being around my neck is annoying me so much that my stomach has started hurting!!"

"I don't think the bandana has anything to do with your stomach hurting." Lance said.  "Maybe it was the beam we were shot with that made us younger."

"Wouldn't we ALL be sick then?" Pietro said sarcastically.  "Think about it, slow-mo."

"Whatever…" said Lance, rolling his eyes.

AND THEN…IN THE SEAT IN FRONT OF THEM!!!

"This is gonna be great!" said one random kid to another.  "I have a thermos filled with apple juice and no more mom and dad to tell me what to do!"

"It's just too bad there are GIRLS here!" said the other one.  Obviously they were both boy characters.  "CAUSE GIRLS HAVE COOTIES!!!!"

"EWWWWWW!!" yelled the first one at the top of his lungs.

It was then that the bus driver decided to get everyone in a rousing sing along of 'The Wheels On the Bus'.

Just when all the main people that we know and love thought they were going to have to smite themselves, the bus came to a halt in a small parking lot.  A man with a fedora with a long feather in it entered the bus.

"Hey everyone!" said the man with the fedora.  "Are you all ready for a fun time here at camp?!  I know _I _am!  My name is Smack!  I'm now going to read off what groups you're all in!"


	3. Tootie and Fruitie

"Wait, did he just say that his name is Smack?" Pietro whispered to Lance.

"This is coming from a guy named Pietro?" Lance said.

"Slow-mo." Said Pietro because he couldn't have Lance getting the best of him.

"So those are your groups!" said Smack.  "If you have any questions, come and ask me!!"

"Uh-oh…did you catch what group we're in?" asked Lance as all the kids filed off the bus.

"No." said Pietro.  "Let's go ask Smack."

Pietro and Lance approached Smack.  "Uh…we forgot what groups we were in." said Lance.

"Hahaha!" said Smack.  "I get this every year!  A group of kids always talking during my introduction speech!  Don't worry about it!  Just give me your names and I'll tell you where to go."

"Pietro Maximoff." Pietro said immediately.

"Hm…oh yes!" said Smack.  "Say…do you have a sister going to this camp as well?"

"…Yes…" sighed Pietro.

"I could tell!" said Smack.  "You two look almost EXACTLY the same."

"No…no we really don't." said Pietro.

"Well, nonetheless, your group is over there!" said Smack, pointing to a group of kids which were Wanda, St. John and Remy.  Pietro quickly spotted Wanda.

"My sister is in my group?!" Pietro gasped.  "I thought you guys usually split up siblings!  Especially TWINS!!"

"We go by alphabetical order here." Said Smack as he looked at Lance.  "It just worked out that way.  And what's YOUR name?"

"Lance Alvers." Lance replied.  "I guess I'd go over there since that's the beginning of the alphabet."

"Alvers…Alvers…" Smack said, looking up and down the list.  "Nope!  No Alvers!  Only an OLVERS!  Did you say Olvers?"

"No…Alvers…" Lance said hesitantly.

"It must be a typo then…" said Smack with a shrug.  "But you're with THAT group over there, Mr. Olvers!"  Then he pointed at the group that had Kitty, Scott and Kurt in it.

"Aw man!" said Lance.  "X-geeks!  This always happens to me!"  But of course, he shook the world on the inside because he was in the same group as Kitty and that just rocks his socks.

So Pietro and Lance split up to their appointed groups.  YAY!!

"Welcome to The Carrots!" said their female counselor.  "I'm your counselor!  You can call me Tootie!"  She put her hands on her hips.  "Now, you all know MY name, but I don't know any of yours!!  Let's play the name game to find out some more about each other!"

"I don't care if I'm never turned back, this isn't worth it." Said Wanda.  "Especially if I'm in the same group as YOU, Pietro!"

"Why don't you start?" Tootie said to Wanda.  "After all, ladies first!"

"Fine." Said Wanda.  "I'm WANDA.  But all of you already knew that."

"_I _didn't!" said Tootie.

"You have a list." Wanda pointed out.  "And I'm the only girl in the group so by process of elimination, I would HAVE to be Wanda."

"Well!" said Tootie, looking at her list.  "I see you have a brother!  Which one of you is Pietro!"  She looked at the three boys and then pointed at Pietro.  "I know…it's YOU isn't it?!"

"How could you tell?!" Pietro gasped, looking surprised and strangely humored.

"You're wearing the same thing!" Tootie said happily.

"Yeah…I know." Said Pietro.  "I'm WEARING it."

"Our father MADE us wear these." Said Wanda.

"It looks as though we only have two other people in the group!" said Tootie, referring back to her list again.  "St. John and Remy!  Those are some CRAZY names!  Let's hear first from…St. John!  Let's see if I can guess which one you are!"

"It's not ME!" said St. John.

"I bet it IS!" said Tootie.

"Oh, you figured ME out." Said St. John with a sigh.

"Hey…are you from England?" asked Tootie.

St. John stood there in a stupefied state.  "Why do you ask?"

"Because you have an English accent!" Tootie answered.

"First of all, I am from Australia!" St. John said, counting on his fingers.  "Second of all, I'M not the one with the accent.  It's all of YOU who are speaking funny."

"ALL RIGHT!" said Tootie, spinning around and facing Remy who was just standing there idly by.  "And since you're the ONLY one left, you must be Remy!"

"Oh yes, 'dat's me." Said Remy.  "Remy LeBeau."

"Is that…?" Tootie asked.

Remy sighed.  "Yes, it's a French name." He replied.  "Yes, Remy know French and yes, Remy realize that French is 'da language of love."

"You just responded to the three things I was going to say!!" said Tootie as if it was the most exciting thing in the world.  "So, now that we all know each other, I can show you to the cabin where all your stuff is and where we'll be staying!  We're going to unpack."

So the Carrots departed, going to their cabins.

The other group had introduced themselves to their male counselor, Fruitie, and were now on their way to THEIR cabin called 'The Birds'.

"And here's where we'll all be staying!" said Fruitie as he opened the door to reveal a little room with two bunk beds and another little room with a door that was obviously where Fruitie was staying.  "As you can see, all your bags have been brought here already!  You each get a bed and your very own drawer so take this opportunity to unpack your stuff and do whatever you need to!  We're going to a campfire after this where we'll tell ghost stories, sing songs and eat s'mores!!"

"Sounds riveting." Said Scott.

Then Fruitie turned around and looked at Kurt.  "Hey there, buddy!" he said.  "How do you say 'fire' in German?"  Kurt gave Fruitie a skeptical look.  "Do you know what I'm saying?  HOW… DO… YOU… SAY…"

"I speak English just fine!" interrupted Kurt.

"Oh perfect!" said Fruitie.  "Then how DO you say fire in German?"

Kurt looked painfully at the other three.

"If it'll get him to shut up, just say it." Said Lance.

"It's 'Feuer'." Kurt said.

"HURRAY!" said Fruitie.  "I love learning new words!  We're going to go to the Feuer!  Oh…should I have asked how to say 'campfire' instead of just plain old fire?  How do you say 'campfire'?"

"This is the LAST one." Kurt warned.  "Lagerfeuer."

"Wow!" said Fruitie.  "I recognized 'feuer' in 'lagerfeuer'!  See?  I'm applying knowledge to everyday situations!"  Then Fruitie skipped into his room because he had to unpack too.

"Oh god." Said Kitty.  "I don't see how the Professor could do this to us."

"Don't worry, you're not the ONLY one who's suffering." Said Lance, sounding irritated as he pulled a little miniature shirt out of his suitcase that said 'T is for Train!'  The sight of that shirt made him realize just what he was doing and then he gave a heavy sigh and stuffed it back in his suitcase.

"What's the point in being little if I don't have a twin to wear matching clothing with?!" Kitty demanded.

"What?" Scott said, raising his eyebrow.

"I've always wished I had a twin so I could wear matching clothing…" Kitty confessed.  "So I got insanely jealous of Wanda!  How could she HATE being a twin?!"

"Probably because she's got Pietro as her twin." Lance said.

"Good point." Kitty said with a nod.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Come on, everyone!!" said Tootie as she held out her hands for two assorted random children to grab.  "Let's all skip down to the campfire!"

"Fire?" St. John said, turning around immediately.

"False alarm." Remy said.

"Oh…" sighed St. John sadly.

"Come on, kids!" Tootie continued to say all to enthusiastically.  "We'll all go down together and have LOADS of fun!  We're going to tell stories, sing songs and roast marshmallows!  Maybe there will even be S'MORES there!  Now you can't tell me that that doesn't sound exciting!!"

"That doesn't sound exciting." Said Wanda as she held up her hands threateningly.  "I want to home…NOW."

"Wanda!" Pietro yelled nervously as he quickly (maybe a little TOO quickly) reached out and pulled her hands down.  "Not here.  Or at least, not yet."

"But she wants us to skip!" Wanda pointed out.  "And we're going to tell stories and sing songs around a campfire!"

"Fire?" St. John said, as he turned to Wanda.  "A big fire or a little fire?"

"Does it matter?" Remy said.  "If YOU'RE there, it'll be a big fire anyway."

"How very true…" said St. John thoughtfully.

"We don't want to be late!" said Tootie when she noticed that no one was making a move any time soon.

"We don't?" Wanda said, looking annoyed.

"One of you has to hold my hand on the way down, one of you has to sit on my lap when we get there, one of you has to hold my hand on the way back and the other has to fall asleep on me!!" Tootie decreed.

"Since we're already halfway there, Remy'll hold your hand." Remy said, grabbing Tootie's hand.

"HURRAY!!" cheered Tootie.  "I still have a free hand just in case anyone wants it!"

"You're actually going along with this?" St. John said to Remy as they all started walking since no one took Tootie up on her offer.

"Remy figure if he humor her now, she'll leave him alone later." Remy answered.

"Well, I figure that if you humor her now then she'll think you like her and keep annoying you when the three of us refuse her." St. John pointed out.  "If I were you I would…hey!  It's the campfire!"


	4. Why Are They Called S'mores?

There was a group of about a hundred little kids all sitting on benches behind the campfire.  The oldest kids were about ten and were ugly and were sitting in the back row and the youngest kids were as young as three and were sitting in the front.  Smack was standing behind the fire looking extremely proud of himself since he probably made it all by himself.

"The fire's pretty small…" St. John observed.  "…Now…"

"Here's a good spot!!" Tootie exclaimed as she sat down on a bench that was somewhere in the middle of the rows.  "All right, who's sitting in my lap?"

"ME!!!" Pietro yelled, throwing both his arms up in the air.

"Well then what are you waiting for?!" Tootie demanded in a playful tone.  Pietro laughed and leapt into Tootie's lap.

"You're embarrassing me." Said Wanda, crossing her arms.

"You're just jealous because I got here first." Said Pietro.  "Slow mo."

"No." said Wanda.  "Just curious to why you want to sit in Tootie's lap."

Pietro thought long and hard for a second.  "I don't know why but I just do."

"You don't know why?" Wanda asked with a raised eyebrow.  Pietro nodded his head.  "Whatever."

Meanwhile, Remy had put a towel over St. John's head and was holding it there as St. John squirmed around to get free.

"Remy!" whined St. John.  "If I can't see the campfire, I can't HELP it!"

"'Dat's the point." Said Remy.  "Remy don't want da camp burnin' down."

"Curse you, small body!" St. John cried as he fidgeted around some more.  "I won't burn the camp down!  I won't even burn any people.  Except maybe Tootie!  But just a little!  Where'd you get that towel anyway?"

"Well…" started Remy but then he stopped.  "Actually, maybe if you burned da camp down, Remy'd be able to go home.  But den again, we might be put on some OTHER mission to improve da teamwork or something."

"Where is this going?" St. John asked.

"Nowhere." Remy answered.

Just then, a male counselor walked over followed by four familiar faces!!

"Hi Fruitie!" said Tootie.

"Hi Tootie!" said Fruitie.

"You sitting here?" asked Tootie.

"Yup!" said Fruitie.  "Come on, kids!"

"Oh man, this is so NOT fun!" said Kitty as she plunked herself down next to Remy since there was an empty place next to him.

"Who ever said it was going to be?" Lance said, sitting down next to Kitty.

"I think my brother is having plenty fun." Wanda said, leaning over and pointing at Pietro who was sitting in Tootie's lap as if he belonged there.

"What's he doing that for?" Kurt said.

"He must be getting a little to into this whole teamwork building thing." Scott said.

"I can't breathe!!" St. John yelled even though it might have very well been a lie.

"Hey, what's going on here?!" Tootie demanded, looking up from her conversation with Fruitie.

"Um…he's…a…ghost." Said Remy, at a loss of anything else to say.  Well, YEAH!  What was he supposed to say?!  'I'm putting this towel over his face because he is mentally unstable and enjoys controlling fire and has that special ability.  Hi!  We're mutants!!  All of us!  And not only that, we're teenagers!  Well, not ME, I'm older than that but you get the idea…' No.  He was definitely not going to say that.

"Hey…I think I can see through the towel…" St. John said as he suddenly stopped struggling to get free.  Remy looked at the fire to see it was dancing around abnormally.

"Remy thinks he gotta go to the bathroom." Remy said.  "And when he say he, he means St. John."

"I do not!" said St. John.

"Dat's what he said last time." Remy said to Tootie.  "Then he had an accident."

"You're lying!!" yelled St. John.

"So Remy gonna take him to the bathroom." Remy said as he grabbed St. John and then began to drag him off out of eyeshot of the fire.  Tootie didn't want to be assisting a little boy in the bathroom so she let them go.

"Well…uh…" said Smack as the fire returned to normal.  "TA-DA!!!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" cheered the entire camp.

"That was the craziest campfire ever!" exclaimed Fruitie, looking at his group that was just sitting there because they were used to fire being crazy.  "Don't you all think so?"

"I've seen crazier." Said Kurt.

"How do you say 'crazy' in German?!" Fruitie said enthusiastically.  Kurt shivered and pretended as though he didn't hear Fruitie.

"ALL RIGHT!!!" said Smack.  "I think everyone is finally here!  We can begin making some s'mores!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!" cheered the camp again as they all threw their arms up in the air and shook them around happily.

Smack then went around handing out all the ingredients you need to make a s'more.  Graham cracker, chocolate and marshmallow!!

"All right, you each get a graham cracker to break in half, a half a bar of chocolate and one marshmallow!" Tootie explained as she handed Pietro and Wanda each the things she just said.

"Can we each have two since the rest of our group isn't here?" Pietro asked.

"They'll be back!" Tootie assured him.

"I HATE s'mores!" Wanda said, throwing her cracker on the ground.

"Aw…don't say that!" said Tootie as she picked Pietro up and sat him down on the bench.  Then she picked up the cracker.  "I think it's still good!"

"Do you believe in the five second rule?" Pietro said as he broke his cracker in two but he broke it UNEVENLY!!!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!  But he didn't really care because he was going to eat it in a second anyway.

"I would never eat a s'more, let alone one that's been in the dirt." Wanda said in a disgusted tone.

Meanwhile, Fruitie handed out HIS group THEIR s'more ingredients.

"Why are they called s'mores?" asked Kurt since he figured it was some kind of English thing that he couldn't possibly comprehend because it was his second language.

"Because…you always want some more!!!" Fruitie said all too happily.

"I don't get it." Said Kurt.

"If you say some more real fast, it's s'more." Scott tried to explain because Fruitie was too busy patting himself on the back and chuckling warmly.

"Call me crazy but for some reason, I just get the feeling that these marshmallows should be melted." Said Lance.

"Yeah." Said Kitty.  "They should."

"The s'more is just too tall and it tastes funny." Lance said.

"The chocolate should be melted too!" Kitty added.

"It's just not gooey enough." Lance observed.

"It tastes kind of funny…" Kitty continued.

"Can we melt the marshmallows?" Lance asked to Fruitie. "You know, put them on a stick and roast them over the fire?  Isn't that the whole fun of making a s'more?  I mean, if I have to be at this stupid camp, I might as well be able to make a REAL s'more."

"They ARE real." Said Fruitie, putting his hand over his heart.

Meanwhile, in the bathroom…

"'Dere." Said Remy as he backed away from his work.  He had tied St. John to one of the sinks in the bathroom!!  HOW MEAN!!  "And your fingers are too small and childlike and stumpy…so you can't get out."

"Aww…" said St. John sadly.

"Now Remy gonna go and get a s'more." Remy said, rubbing his hands together.

"Hey!!" yelled St. John.  "St. John want a s'more too!!"

"You can't have one because you can't be trusted with da fire." Remy reminded him, choosing to disregard the fact that he had just been mocked.

"But I really want one…" said St. John.

"Fine." Said Remy.  "Remy bring you back one."

"YAY!!" cheered St. John.  "I like my marshmallows BURNT!!"

"Remy figured so much." Remy said, rolling his eyes as he exited the little bathroom and made his way back to the campfire area.

"Where's Johnny?" asked Tootie.

"Still in da bathroom." Remy said.  "He asked Remy to take his s'more to him.  And…when Remy say 'his', he mean St. John's.  Remy would never give him his own s'more.  And…uh…him being St. John."

"Why don't you wait until he gets OUT of the bathroom?" Tootie suggested.  "The bathroom is a dirty place."

"You told me to eat my graham cracker off the ground." Said Wanda.

"But you DID, didn't you?" Tootie said, looking around for Wanda's leftover uneaten s'more.

"No." said Wanda.  "My stupid brother did."

"What?" Pietro said, his face covered with chocolate.

"It's not nice to call people stupid!" scolded Tootie.  "Especially not your own brother!  Especially not your TWIN!"

"Wipe your face…" Wanda said, ignoring Tootie and shaking her head in disbelief.  "What is up with you today?"

"Nothing." Said Pietro as he wiped his face on his sleeve.

"You're taking this whole 'kid thing' way to seriously." Said Wanda.

"I am not." Pietro replied.  "I don't even know what you're talking about."

"You're acting like a kid!" Wanda said angrily.

"No I'm not!" Pietro said.  "I ALWAYS act like this."

"You definitely do not always act like this." Wanda said.

"I think I know."

"You're telling me that you ALWAYS act like a four-year-old?"

"What are you talking about?" Pietro said, rudely scoffing away from Wanda.  "Are you saying that I always act like a four-year-old?"

"No, that's what YOU said." Wanda pointed out.

"It is NOT!" Pietro yelled.

"Yes it is!!" Wanda yelled back.

"Slow-mo!!"

"OKAY!!" said Tootie, grabbing Wanda and Pietro and separating them before they killed each other.

"So uh…can Remy have the s'mores?" Remy asked.

"Oh fine…" said Tootie as she handed over the two sets of s'mores and Remy walked off.

Meanwhile, back in the bathroom…

"I'M BORED!!!" St. John yelled at the top of his lungs as he swayed back and forth.  "SOMEONE UNTIE ME!!!"

Then the door opened.

"S'more?" St. John said, turning around only to see a knavish little kid standing there with his finger jammed up his nose.

"I is no s'more!" said the kid but he had a speech defect like Elmer Fudd.

"You're not Remy." Said St. John.  "You're not even…literate."

Then the door opened again and the stupid pointless kid got slammed against the wall and smooshed.  Remy was standing there with two s'mores in his hands!!

"YAY!!" cheered St. John.

"Literate?" Remy said as he sat down next to St. John.  "What was the kid writing?"

"I don't know." Said St. John.  "It was a poor choice of words.  I feel as though ever since I've been in this small body, my IQ has just been plummeting."

"It was never really that high to begin with." Remy pointed out.

"Hey!!" yelled St. John.  "I'm more articulate than you!  Ah!  Articulate!  THAT was the word I was looking for!"

Remy then untied St. John so that he could enjoy his s'more.

"Don't try anything funny because Remy have access to his powers and you don't." Remy warned.  "Plus, Remy's bigger and faster and he weighs more."

"I wasn't going to do anything!" St. John said, grabbing the pieces to his s'more.  "Hey!  I thought I told you I wanted my marshmallow burnt!  And aren't s'mores supposed to have chocolate?!"

"Um…they didn't give you any chocolate." Said Remy as he secretly licked his lips free of all the evidence.  "They ran out."

"This s'more STINKS!" said St. John, handing it back to Remy.  "Just…just blow it up!  It offends me so!"

"Okay." Said Remy since he likes blowing things up more than you might think he does.  So he touched the graham cracker, emitting a splendiferous glow.  He and St. John ducked and covered as the graham cracker exploded, leaving a small charred circle on the floor.

"Hello, what's that?" St. John said he crept over to see a tiny piece of the cracker with a slight bit of flame on it.  Before he could react and leap for joy, Remy stomped his foot on it.  "You're no fun!!"

"Remy's hard work not goin' to waste now." He said.  "You plann' that all along, right?"

"No." said St. John.  "It just worked out that way."

Just then, Fruitie poked his head in.  "THERE you two are!" he said.  "Tootie has been worried sick about you!  Get out there this instant!"


	5. Sleepers and Birthday Suits

"Is the campfire over?" Remy asked.

"Yup!" said Fruitie.  "They extinguished the fire and everything!"

"Already?!" gasped St. John.

"They have!" Fruitie replied.  "Now go out there!"  Remy and St. John exited the boys bathroom.

"I'll NEVER forgive you!" St. John said to Remy.

"Don't worry, there'll be another one tomorrow night." Said Fruitie.

"REALLY?!" St. John AND Remy said dramatically.

"Now shoo!" said Fruitie.  "I have to take my campers back to the cabin!  Come on kids!"

He turned to his group which was only Scott, Kitty and Lance.

"Hey!" said Fruitie, putting his hands on his hips since he definitely had the basket.  "Where's Kurt?"

"He's uh…in the bathroom!" Scott said.

"Oh!" said Fruitie.  "I'll get him!"  Then Fruitie walked into the bathroom.

"Is Kurt really in the bathroom?" Kitty asked.

"No." said Scott.  "Didn't you hear him saying, 'Oh no!  My image inducer is on the fritz again!' and then walk off while swearing in German?  Then again, he might not have been swearing.  He could have been…singing."

"Oh…we missed that." Said Lance.

"He WALKED off?" Kitty asked.

"Yeah." Said Scott.  "You guys were too busy talking about s'mores."

"It was way back then?!" Kitty asked.

"No…if you remember correctly, you two were JUST talking about s'mores right before Fruitie went inside to find St. John and Remy." Scott reminded them.

"Oh right…" said Lance and Kitty, looking at each other.

Just then, Fruitie emerged from the bathroom.

"He's not in there!" Fruitie said.

"That's right!" said Scott.  "He came out while you were in there and said he'd meet us back at the cabin."

"I don't feel comfortable with him walking around alone at night." Said Fruitie in a concerned tone.  "Especially with English being his second language.  What if he needs help?"

"Kurt's pretty fluent in English." Said Kitty.  "He'll be fine."

"Hey, he didn't even know what a s'more was." Fruitie pointed out.

"No, he knew what a s'more was, he just wanted to know why it was called a s'more." Lance said.

The four of them stood there in silence staring at each other.

"Time to go back to the cabin, children!" Fruitie said.  "I'll tuck you all in for the night and then go on a search for Kurt when I'm sure you're all safe and warm!"

They all followed Fruitie as he walked through the woods for an unnecessarily long period of time before locating a small cabin.  

"Here is our cabin, right where we left it!" He explained with a guffaw.  "Now, just as a reminder, it has a big bird on it for those of you who can't read the big sign that says, 'the birds'."

"I'm pretty sure we can all read." Said Lance.

"That would just be lovely!"

Fruitie opened the door and turned the light on.  As soon as that happened, there was an abrupt flash of light.

"What was that?" Fruitie asked.  "Is anyone in here?"

"It's just me!" came Kurt's voice from under a blanket.  "I'm under this blanket but DON'T look because…um…erm…I'm NAKED!"

"Do you need help getting dressed?" asked Fruitie as he tried to lift the blankets off Kurt.

"No!" Kurt yelled as he held the covers down tightly.  "I…um…sleep naked.  So you can NEVER look at me when I'm sleeping!"

"He sleeps naked?" Lance asked.  

"Maybe that's why he got his own room…" Kitty said.

"Yes!" said Scott with an overly obvious wink.  "He sleeps naked.  He even takes off his WATCH when he sleeps."

"I don't follow, Scott." Said Lance.

"Yeah, if you slept naked, that would include taking off your watch." Said Kitty.

"No." sighed Scott.  "His WATCH.  He takes it off!"

"What are you trying to get at Scott?" Lance asked.  "We already established that."

"His WATCH!!" Scott tried to explain.  "That doesn't go with his BLUE outfit!"

"Which blue outfit?" asked Kitty.

"I'm utterly confused." Said Lance.  

"Scott!" Kurt yelled.  "Just shut up!"

"Lights out!" Fruitie announced as he turned the lights out abruptly.

"I'm not in my pajamas yet!" Kitty whined.  

"Oh all right!" said Fruitie as he walked into his own isolated room and closed the door.  "Five minutes!" 

The moment Fruitie closed the door, Kurt emerged from under the blankets, not NAKED but BLUE!

"OHHHHHHHH!!!" Kitty and Lance said as if they had just figured something out.  Which they did.

"What was with Fruitie wanting to rip the blankets off of me when I said I was naked?" Kurt asked as he climbed off his bed.

"Yeah…" said Scott.  "That's a little sketchy."

"I feel uncomfortable with him around." Said Kitty.

"Well, at least you're female." Said Lance.  "He may just be interested in men."

Meanwhile in the other cabin…

"What is THIS?!" Wanda demanded as she pulled a pair of pink sleepers with attached feet.  "And Pietro's got the SAME ones only blue!"

"Mine have Winnie the Pooh on them." Said Pietro as he pointed to the little picture that was sewn on the ass.  Wanda turned hers around.

"OH GOD NO!!" she yelled when she noticed the identical picture on hers.  "I refuse to wear these!"

"But they look so comfy!" Pietro said as he unzipped the pajamas, stripped down to his rocket ship undies right then and there and put the sleepers on.  "And the feet give me traction when I run!"

Wanda was too stupefied to even talk.

"Remy didn't see 'dat." Said Remy as he averted his eyes from Pietro.

"I definitely saw that!" St. John announced.  "And I wish I didn't!"

"Are you children getting changed?" came Tootie's voice from her isolated bedroom.  "If you need help…"

"We don't need help!" Wanda called.

"Are these the only pajamas that were packed for me?!" St. John demanded as he pulled a two-piece set of pajamas with Scooby-Doo all over them.  Then he thought for a second, stood up and walked toward the bathroom.  "Oh well.  If you two are wearing sleepers with Winnie the Pooh on them, I suppose I can endure Scooby-Doo."

"I am NOT wearing sleepers!" Wanda insisted.

"Apparently, Remy is." Said Remy as he yanked a pair of green sleepers with a crazy monkey out of his bag.  "'Dese look a little small…"

"They're not mine!" St. John yelled as he slammed the bathroom door.

"What's 'dis?" Remy said.  "Something's written on da tag here with a Sharpie.  'Allerdyce'.  Dat's certainly not Remy's last name."

"You're vision must be impaired or something!" said St. John.  "Because those are DEFINITELY yours!"

"You sure you don't need help?!" came Tootie's voice.

"WE'RE SURE!!" Wanda yelled.

"Get out here or Remy'll blow up da door!" Remy called to St. John.  "Put on your sleepers!"

"NEVER!!" St. John yelled back.  "These Scooby-Doo pajamas are mine!"

"Fine." Said Remy.  "You can keep dem.  Remy'll sleep in his clothes."

"HURRAH!!" St. John cheered as the door flung open and he was standing there with the Scooby-Doo pajamas on.  Remy instantly jumped on top of St. John.

"Hand 'em over!" Remy said as he pinned St. John to the ground.

"That's not fair!" St. John whined.   "You're bigger and heavier than me!"

"Just as Remy said earlier…" said Remy with a smirk as he help up the green sleepers with the horrifying monkey on them.

"The monkey is scary though…" St. John complained.

"It's either da monkey, or Remy." Said Remy.  "Which are you more afraid of?"  St. John looked back and forth between Remy who was sitting on him and pinning his arms down and that mean monkey on the terrible itchy green sleepers.

"Um…" St. John started.  "The monkey!"

"Wrong answer." Said Remy threateningly. 

"You all done?!" Tootie asked as her door opened a tiny bit.

"NO!" Wanda yelled as she slammed the door closed all the way using her magical powers that are just so random.

"I get the top bunk!" Pietro cheered as he jumped on the top bunk of the bunk bed on the left.

"ME TOO!!" St. John called from underneath Remy.  

"You're not getting ANY bed until you give Remy his pajamas."

Suddenly, the door opened and Tootie was standing there with her hands on her hips.  

"What is going on here?" she demanded.

"NOTHING!!" Wanda yelled as she got ready to destroy Tootie but held back at the last second.

"He's sitting on me!" St. John said as if it weren't entirely obvious.  "Get him off!"

"Remy…" Tootie said in a disapproving voice.  "Get off of Johnny and explain why you were on him in the first place."

"Well…" started Remy.  "JOHNNY took Remy's pajamas."

"Is that a reason to sit on him?"

"Well, Remy wasn't sittin' on him at first." Remy explained.  "I was just pinning him and happened to be on top of him."

"Johnny, give Remy his pajamas back, Remy, don't resort to violence.  Come and talk to me and I'll resolve the situation." Said Tootie as she picked Remy off of St. John.

"I don't want to wear those pajamas…" St. John said as he looked at the evil monkey on them.


	6. We Thought it was Just Harmless Fun

**This will be the last chapter we're submitting until we return from our vacation on the 17th.  We apologize to leave you all off on such a distressing cliffhanger, but once we get back, we will try to add another chapter right away.  Adeu adeu adeu!**

Meanwhile in a far off land…

"PROFESSOR!!" came the distressed sounding voice of Forge from inside the institute.  He opened the door to see Mystique, Magneto and Professor Xavier hunched over a laptop.

"Okay!" said Mystique excitedly.  "Make Rogue and Kurt go out to get me a mother's day gift!"

"But I thought it was father's day!" Magneto said.  "That's why Wanda and Pietro are at the store buying ME a gift."

"You're both wrong." Said Professor Xavier as he continued typing.  "It's my birthday and everyone's getting ME a present.  Having Wanda out buying you a present doesn't work with the current plot because she's at Piotr's house making sweet love."

"I still don't approve of that." Said Magneto.

"Well, you were the one that had Pietro dating your god-like original character!" Mystique argued.

"Yeah!  And YOU'RE the one who said that Kastarry…" started Professor Xavier but he was interrupted by Forge's loud clearing of the throat.  He immediately slammed the laptop shut and the three of them spun around trying to look as innocent as possible.  "May I help you, Forge?"

"Well, Professor…" said Forge.  "There seems to be a problem with my latest invention."

"And what invention would that be?" Professor Xavier asked.

"The one that made everyone younger." Said Forge.

"Oh yes."

"Well, as it turns out, it has some odd effects on the mind." Said Forge.

"Do tell."

"A day before I used my invention on them, I tested it on ol' Spot here." Said Forge as he stepped aside to reveal a random puppy behind him.  "Spot was a house broken, well-trained, eleven-year-old dog two days ago.  Look at him now!  Now he is a mischievous puppy, eager to play and wetting himself everywhere!"

"So what's your point?" asked Magneto.

"After a while, the subject's mind begins to deteriorate." Explained Forge.  "At first I thought that Spot was just very ill but then he got over it soon and then began acting younger than ever!  At first in spurts but now it's constant!"

"No problem there!" said Mystique.  "It just adds to the fun!"

"I don't know if it's permanent." Said Forge.

"Oh my." Said Professor Xavier.  "That IS a problem, now isn't it?"


	7. Some Weird Side Effects

Meanwhile, back at the camp…

"TIME TO GET UP!!" Frutie called as he flipped the lights on.  Everyone whined in unison.  "Up and at 'em!"

"I don't feel so well…" complained Lance as he rolled over in his bed.

"Me too." Said Kitty.  

"Me three!" Scott said.

"Me four!" came Kurt's voice from underneath the blankets.

"What seems to be the problem?" Fruitie asked.

"My stomach hurts." Scott said.  Everyone else agreed.

"Must have been something you guys ate…" Fruitie thought.

Meanwhile, with the Carrots…

Everyone in the Carrots were suffering from a very similar ailment!  Well, except for Pietro who seemed to be as fit as a fiddle.

"Come on, kiddies, time to wake up and go to breakfast!" said Tootie enthusiastically.  "Today, we're having FRENCH TOAST!!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAY!!" cheered Pietro.

"How can you be so cheerful?!" demanded Wanda as she went to zap Pietro but she was just far too sick to do so.

"Well…I LOVE French toast!!" Pietro said happily.

"Remy, is this how you eat your toast in France?" Tootie said as she grabbed all of Remy's covers and whipped them off of him but he was curled up in the fetal position in the corner of his bed wearing his beloved Scooby-Doo pajamas that he clearly won back from St. John.  "Oh…you don't look so good!  Maybe you should just stay in bed!"

"Remy t'ink so too." Remy answered weakly as Tootie put the covers back on him.  Then Tootie danced on over to Wanda.

"What about you, Wanda?!" Tootie asked.  "You ready to go and meet the day?!"

It was lucky for Tootie that Wanda wasn't feeling well or else she would have most likely met her end just then.

"Leave me alone." Wanda said evilly.

"Are you not feeling well either?" Tootie said in a concerned tone.  Then she looked up at the top bunk to see St. John completely under all of his covers.  She pulled them aside so she could see his face.  "How about you?"

"No…" he whined.

"Is EVERYONE not feeling well?" Tootie said.

"I'M FEELING FINE!!!" Pietro screamed.

"GOOD FOR YOU!!" Tootie screamed right back.

"SHUT UP!!!" yelled Wanda.

"Well, Pietro and I are going to go down to lunch." Tootie explained.  "And when we come back, we'll try to figure out what's wrong with all of you!"

"YAY!!" cheered Pietro again as he bounded off the bed and landed on the ground.  Then he ran over to his suitcase at the speed of light (literally) and found himself something to wear and put it on.  "Can you help me buckle the overalls?" he asked Tootie.

"Of course!" Tootie said happily.

Wanda was looking over this with a look of disgust and mild confusion.  "Oh, brother?" she said.  "May I have a word with you?"

"Yup!" Pietro said as he hopped over to her.  "What's up?"

"That was MY question!" Wanda said angrily.

"Whaddya mean?" Pietro said as he started playing with his overalls.

"Never mind." Wanda said, not feeling well enough to argue with Pietro.

"You ready to go?" Tootie said.

"YEAH!!" Pietro said excitedly as he and Tootie left the cabin.

Meanwhile, with the Birds…

"I can't believe Fruitie left us behind." Said Lance.  "What are we…four?"

"I'm six." Scott corrected.

"Well he locked the door." Kitty said.  "So that means that we can't get out and no one else can get in.  Well…_I _could get out."

"Me too." Said Kurt.

"I could if I was feeling destructive." Said Scott.

"And I'd just follow along with one of you." Said Lance.  "Or shake the world."

"Hey…I just noticed that I don't feel sick anymore." Said Kitty suddenly, standing up.

"You're right!" said Scott.  

"That's strange…we all felt sick at the same time and now we all feel better at the same time too!" Kurt said.

"I wonder if the others are feeling the same way too?" wondered Kitty.

"Maybe it had something to do with that ray the professor shot at us." Said Lance since he had previously used that as an excuse to explain Pietro's stomach ache.  Say…

"Since we're feeling better, let's go get some French toast." Said Scott.

"Yeah, I like French toast!" said Kitty.

"But what about my image inducer!" said Kurt.  "It's defective!"  Then he pounded on it a few times and it started working.  "Oh…never mind!  Let's hope it lasts…at least through breakfast!"

The four clothed themselves in the least childish things they could dig out of their bags and then grabbed onto Kitty and walked through the door to the outside world.  After strolling down the path for a moment or two, they passed by the cabin labeled 'The Carrots'.

"Hey…I remember the others saying something about being named the Carrots." Said Scott.

"Maybe we should check on them!" said Kurt.  "And see if THEY'RE sick too!"

"Do we really care?" asked Kitty.  "They're all evil."

Just then, the door suddenly came flying off it's hinges and landed only inches away from the Birds.

"Lock the door on US, will they?" Wanda said, putting her hands on her hips as she and St. John stood at the doorway.

"You coming Remy?" St. John called back into the cabin.  There was only the sound of a groan so St. John shrugged.  "He's not coming."

"What are you guys doing?" asked Scott.

"Well, we all mysteriously woke up with terrible stomach aches excluding my stupid brother who was physically fine but mentally is suffering from very peculiar issues." Wanda explained.  

"Oh." Said Scott.

"So now we're gonna go get ourselves some Freedom Toast!" St. John declared.

"What about Remy?" asked Lance because the word 'Freedom' reminded him of 'French' which reminded him of Remy.

"He's being a drama king." Said Wanda.  "He's pretending to still be sick."

"Why would he pretend?" asked St. John.

"We all felt better at the same time." Wanda replied as if she was talking to a small child.  Hehe.

"Say…Remy was shot by the gamma ray twice…" Lance said randomly.

"And?" Kurt said.  "What's that got to do with anything?"

"He thinks our stomach aches have something to do with the ray." Kitty explained even though Kurt was there too.  Kurt was just having a stupid head moment.

"It could…" Lance said hesitantly because he didn't want to look uncool.

"If it had something to do with the ray, why wasn't Pietro sick?" Scott asked.

"He WAS…yesterday." Lance answered.

"Obviously, it was unrelated." Said Scott.

They all stood there in silence.

"Can we go get some French toast now?" asked St. John.

"What are you kids doing out of the cabins?" came the voice of Fruitie as he came over the hill.  "I thought I locked you in!  And weren't you all sick?"

"We feel better." Said Kitty.

"Well, breakfast is over!" said Fruitie.

"First the campfire, now the French toast?!" St. John said dramatically as Tootie and Pietro came over the hill as well.  "What will be next?!"

"Your guardians all called." Said Tootie.  "They said they were on their way to pick you up."

"All right!" said Lance.  "Maybe they realized that what they were doing was mean and cruel and decided to subject us to something else!"

"You're probably right." Kitty agreed.  "I mean, this is a bit over the edge."

"While we're waiting for them to pick you up, why don't we have one big session of arts and crafts?" suggested Fruitie.

"YAY!!" cheered Pietro.  Fruitie and Tootie were a little confused because they were only bombarded by one cheer, but they decided just to let that slide and take all the kids to the Arts and Crafts building.


	8. Arts and Crafts

**SURPRISE!!  WE'RE BACK!!  And yes, Florida WAS grand, thanks for asking!!  But now, the story will continue as normal and once again, we apologize for leaving you off at that cliffhanger.  But now it will make you feel HAPPIER that everything was solved to an extremely lame extent!!**

Everyone sat around the table and waited patiently.

Wanda suddenly cleared her throat.  "Tootie…I REALLY want some gimp." She said.  "Black and red."

"What's the magic word?" Tootie asked.

"Now." Wanda said, slamming her hand down on the table.

"I want gimp too!" said Kitty.  "But I want two different shades of pink!"

Tootie returned with a bunch of reels of gimp.

"I don't know why I want to do this so much." Wanda said as she started working on her gimp but then she stopped and held up the black gimp.  "Can I exchange my black for pink?"

"Certainly!" said Tootie as she handed Wanda some pink.

"I don't want to do gimp." Said Lance.  "Gimp is for girls."

He got some odd stares from the rest of the people in the group.

"I think I'm going to go check on Remy." Said Tootie.  "Since I don't see him, I hope he's back at the cabin.  Fruitie, could you watch my kids?"

"OF COURSE!" Fruitie said, excited that he got a task.  Tootie then left the building.

"Can I do something with glue?" asked St. John.

"You want to make a noodle picture?" Fruitie said, pulling a bag of noodles out of the supply closet.

"No." said St. John.  "Just the glue."

"I wanna make a noodle picture!" Pietro said, slamming his hands down on the table.

"Can I color or something?" Kurt asked.  "I just want to color."

"I want to make a friendship bracelet for Jean." Said Scott as he leaned over and helped himself to some string.

Everyone worked intently on their project except for Lance who just kind of sat there before finally grabbing some markers and adding to the coloring fun.  

"Wanda, look!" Pietro said, holding up his piece of paper that had a bunch of noodles glued on it.  "I made a picture of our family!  See?  There's me, that's you and that one's our father!"

"How DARE you!!" Wanda yelled as she zapped the picture and blew it to smithereens while Fruitie's back was turned.

"WANDA!!" yelled Pietro.  "I'm telling on you!!  You ruined my picture that I worked so hard on!!  I wanted to show it to our dad!!"

"He's your dad, NOT MINE!!" yelled Wanda.

"That's not true!!" Pietro argued.

"What's going on here?" Fruitie said.

"Wanda ruined my picture!" Pietro tattled, pointing at Wanda.

"Wanda, say you're sorry!" Fruitie instructed.

"I don't have to." Said Wanda, crossing her arms.  "You're not my counselor."

Just then, Tootie walked back in followed by Remy.  "I hope everyone's getting along in here!" she said.

"Wanda ruined my picture!!" Pietro said ONCE AGAIN.

"Wanda, say you're sorry!" Tootie commanded.

"You're not my mom." Wanda retorted.  "I don't have to do what YOU say."

"Then you're just going to have to sit on time-out." Tootie said.

"You can't tell me what to do." Wanda said.

"All right, just don't come to me with any favors!" Tootie threatened.  "Pietro, you can make a NEW picture."

"This time, Wanda WON'T be in it!" Pietro said.  "It'll just be me and MY dad!"

"That's the way it is ANYWAY!!" Wanda yelled.

"Girls have COOTIES." Pietro said, sticking his tongue out at Wanda.  Just then, Smack poked his head in the door.

"Their guardians are here." He said.  Then Professor Xavier, Magneto, Forge and some random lady walked in.

"Can we speak to them alone?" asked Professor Xavier to Tootie, Fruitie and Smack.  (Whoa, those are some messed up names.  Did we come up with those?  It can't be…)

"Oh OF COURSE." Said Smack as he and Tootie and Fruitie left.

Then the random lady turned into Mystique.  HURRAY!!

"Everyone, I have some distressing news!" said Professor Xavier.  "Then again, I'll let Forge explain."

"Well…" started Forge.

"HI DAD!" Pietro interrupted.

"Hi son." Said Magneto.  Then he paused.  "Wait…Forge!  I thought you said we still had time to save them!"

"Hmm…uh…er…uh…well…um…oh…hm…" Forge contemplated.  "AHA!!  Because Pietro life is at an accelerated rate, all the side effects must have already happened!"

"I KNEW it!" said Lance.

"No you didn't, Lance." Kitty said.

"So it's too late to save him?" Magneto said in a distressed tone.

"Well…" started Forge ONCE AGAIN but his cell phone suddenly started ringing.  He sighed and pulled it out.  "I told you not to call me!"

"Who is it?" demanded Mystique.

"It's my clone." Forge answered.  "I cloned myself when I was bored.  He's been working on this experiment with me.  Just hold on.  This will only take a second.  What IS it, Forge Two?"

Forge paused and listened.

"Hm…yes…I see." Forge said, nodding his head.  "Well, that's good!  They'll be happy to hear that!  Goodbye, Forge Two!"  And then Forge hung up and stood there as if he didn't have anything to say.

"Well…?" led Professor Xavier.

"Oh right!" said Forge.  "That was Forge Two on the phone."

"We knew that." Said Magneto.

"Forge Two has been working on this experiment with me…"

"We knew that too."

"So anyway.  He just called me…"

"WE KNOW!!!!"

"ALL RIGHT!!" Forge yelled.  "He said that the side effects are, in fact, not permanent!  He turned Spot back to normal and he was perfectly fine, acting the way a proper dog should act!"

"So it's not permanent?" said Professor Xavier, sounding relieved.

"Oh my no." said Forge.

"So you're leaving us here?" Scott said.

"Oh my yes." Said Forge.

"Wait…WHAT'S not permanent?" Kurt said suddenly.

"Nothing!" said Mystique.  "Just have fun!"  The four of them turned to leave.

"Wait!" said Pietro.  "You're not…LEAVING…are you?  Dad?"

"Ohhhh…" said Magneto.  "Could I at least take him home?  I want to do things RIGHT this time!"

"No, they must ALL suffer!" Professor Xavier declared.  "I mean…complete this training…"

"Can I have a shoulder ride before you leave?" Pietro asked, reaching out his arms for Magneto to run over and pick him up and swing him around crazily like a dadoo should do.

"Maybe later." Said Magneto.  "When we pick you up."

"Bye!" said Mystique as the four walked out the door.

"Hey!!" yelled Scott.  "You can't just LEAVE us here!"  He leapt out of his chair and ran over and flung the door open only to be faced with Tootie and Fruitie.

"We just heard the wonderful news!" said Fruitie.  "You'll all STAYING!!"

"HURRAY!!" cheered Pietro.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" yelled everyone else.

"Now let's just continue your Arts and Crafts." Said Tootie as she shooed Scott back to his seat.

"Oh…all right…" said Scott as he remembered his friendship bracelet.

"Remy don't got something to 'continue'." Remy said, doing the little quotey things.

"Here, let me show you…" started Tootie but then she seemed to just notice something.  She slowly crept over to Remy until she was only about an inch away from his face.

"Can Remy help you with somet'ing?" Remy said uneasily.

"Is there something wrong with your eyes?!" Tootie finally said.  "Do you have an infection?!"

Remy sighed long and hard as everyone stared at him with horrified expressions.  What would happen now?

"Remy don't appreciate you pointing it out." Remy said.  "He's very sensitive about his allergic reaction."

"To what?" Tootie asked.

"To uh…girls." Remy said.  "It's da cooties."

"Cooties?" Tootie said with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh…Remy not mean to say dat." Remy said, wondering why he had actually said it.  "He meant…uh…nature.  Remy allergic to nature…"

"Oh." Said Tootie.  "That's too bad.  I LOVE nature!  It never said anything about an allergic reaction in your application."

"Dey must have forgotten dat." Remy said with a shrug.

"How could they forget?" Tootie said in a baffled tone.  "You're eyes are… BLACK.  And…RED."

Remy sighed again.  "Remy's REAL sensitive about his reaction." He said.

"Oh!" Tootie gasped.  "I'm sorry!  Forget I said anything!"

"He'll do just dat." Remy said.

"We're not supposed to be in Arts and Crafts ANYWAY…so let's just leave!" Fruitie said.  "How about we go to the field and play a game or something?  How about…Steal the Bacon?"

"YAY!!!" Pietro cheered.

Tootie and Fruitie stared at Pietro and then at all the other kids.

"Okay…fine…" said everyone else more or else.  They followed Tootie and Fruitie to a big field and they set up two nets reasonably close together and put a ball in the middle.


	9. Steal the Bacon

"Fruitie and I are going to call out something like…'If you have blue eyes!'" Tootie explained.  "If you have blue eyes, you have to run out and grab the ball and throw it into the net that is across from you!  It'll be the Carrots versus the Birds!  Everyone get on each side of the field!"

The teams felt compelled to separate just then.

"We are SO going to win!" said Scott as he got in the ready position.

"But they've got Pietro!" said Lance.  "He's so fast!  And he's got really good reaction time!"

"But you guys have ME!" said Kurt proudly.  "And I'm faster."

"But you don't have really good reaction time." Lance pointed out.  "You hear something and have to process it before you realize what you have to do.  Pietro hears something and then does it.  He practically processes it before he even hears it!"

"Besides, you can't go teleporting around in front of Tootie and Fruitie." Kitty pointed out.

"Is everyone ready?!" Fruitie said.  "The first one is…anyone who was NOT born in the United States!"

"You're going DOWN Blue Boy!!" yelled St. John.  "I'm gonna get it!  I'm gonna get it!!"

"Then get it!!" Wanda yelled, pushing St. John towards the ball.

"Okay…no teleporting…" Kurt said as he got down on all fours and started running to the ball.

"KURT!!!" yelled Scott.  "THAT'S ABNORMAL!!"

Kurt stopped.  "Oh right…" he said, standing up.

"GO GO GO!!" cheered the Carrots as St. John ran up to the ball…and then ran right by it.  "NO!!  STOP!!"

"You were confusing me!!" St. John yelled back at them as he went over to pick up the ball but accidentally kicked it in the direction of his own goal.  "Oops… wrong way!"

"You have to pick it up!" Pietro said, jumping up and down.  Everyone could tell that if he had it his way, the ball would already be in the net and Fruitie or Tootie would be calling out the next thing.

"This is a lot harder than it looks!" said St. John as he picked the ball up and turned around only to crash into Kurt.

"Hey!" Kurt yelled.  "Watch where you're going!"

"You're the one who ran into ME!" St. John yelled as he stood up, looked around spotted a goal and then hurled the ball into it.  "YES!  SCORE ONE FOR US!"

"No you IDIOT!" yelled Wanda.  "That was OUR goal!"

"You don't have to congratulate me." Said St. John with a laugh.

"YEAH KURT!!" cheered the Birds.

"Um…good job guys." Said Tootie.  "Johnny, we're shooting towards THAT goal."

"No kidding." Said St. John.

"Well…okay…" said Tootie with a shrug.  "Hey!  Remy!  How come you didn't go out just then?  Aren't you from France?"

"Maybe he is…maybe he isn't." said Remy.  "Let's just say…he didn't feel like it.  Besides, Remy's Cajun and was born in Louisiana."

"Um…all right." Said Tootie.  "Next category!  Fruitie, you have an idea?"

"DO I?!" Fruitie said with a laugh.  "Go out if your last name starts with an 'A'!"

"All right!" St. John cheered running out again as his entire team groaned.

"Heh heh…" Lance chuckled as he balled his hand into a fist.  "I won't lose to you!"

Suddenly, the world began shaking and everyone fell on their butts.  Everyone.  Even Tootie and Fruitie.  

"That's cheating!!" yelled Pietro.

"Yeah!" St. John yelled.

"Was that an earthquake?" asked Tootie to Fruitie.

"I think it was." Said Fruitie.  "But it was just a little one."

"What if it comes back?" 

"Earthquakes don't come back."

Lance ran over to the ball and picked it up just as St. John had time to recombobulate himself.  Lance ran over to the goal and was just about to throw it into the net when St. John came and jumped him from behind by grabbing his legs.

"Ha HA!!" St. John said as he sat up and laughed at Lance.  "You dropped the ball!"

"Yeah but you didn't pick it up!" Lance pointed out as he leapt for the ball.

"It's MINE!!" St. John yelled, grabbing the ball.  Lance and St. John then engaged themselves in an exhilarating game of tug-o-war until finally, since St. John was in a standing up position and he has FIVE year old motor skills, won the ball from Lance.  He turned around a few times and spotted the closest goal and then threw the ball into the net.

"ARGH!!" groaned the Carrots.

"YEAH!!" cheered St. John.

"Does he know which way he's supposed to be going?" Fruitie whispered to Tootie.

"Obviously not." Tootie said, rolling her eyes.  "Johnny, you know, of course, that the goal that you're trying to get the ball in is over there where the other team is, right?"

"Right." St. John said.

"Then next time, put the ball in THAT net." Tootie instructed.

St. John looked confused.  "…Okay…" he said as if Tootie was being stupid.

"Why don't you go this time, Tootie?" Fruitie suggested.

"All right!" said Tootie.  "Go out if your name is two syllables!"

Everyone took a second to count the number of syllables in their respected names.  When the counting was over, Remy, St. John, Wanda and Kitty ran out.

"Yeah!" St. John cheered.  "I've gone out ALL three times!!"

"It's three against one, you guys." Said Wanda as she glared at Remy and St. John.  "We WON'T lose this."

"We shouldn't." said Remy confidently.

"So just don't lose this for me." Said Wanda.

"Remy don't think he's to worry about." Said Remy.

"What?!" Wanda demanded.  "Are you saying that the one who could potentially lose this game is ME?!"

"Remy never said dat." Said Remy.  "He just said dat he won't lose it."

"But you were implying…"

"Nothing." Said Remy.  "Remy was implying nothing."

"YAY!!" came a few cheers from the background.  Wanda a Remy turned around to see St. John triumphantly walking toward them.

"Have no fear guys!" he said proudly.  "I scored with NO trouble!" 

"Yeah!" called Kitty in a teasing voice.  "On the wrong goal AGAIN!!"

"He should play for OUR team!" Scott laughed as he slapped Kurt five.

"Look." Said Wanda, grabbing St. John's collar and pulling him aside.  "We are trying to throw that ball into THAT net.  Over there.  You see where the other group is?  We want that ball over there.  Got it?"

"Duh." Said St. John.

"Just don't get it wrong again, okay?" Wanda said threateningly.

"Okay!" said Tootie.

"Can I go out this time?" Pietro asked impatiently.  "I haven't gotten a turn to go out yet!!"

"You'll get a turn, don't worry!" said Tootie, patting Pietro on the head.

"How about…everyone whose name is five letters or less!" Fruitie yelled out.

Everyone counted up the letters in their names until finally, Remy, Wanda and the entire Birds Team ran out to get the ball.

"You said I was going to get a turn!" Pietro yelled angrily.

"And what's with NOT sending me out?!" St. John demanded.  "S-T-period-space-J-O-H-N.  That's EIGHT letters!"

"It's just the luck of the draw, boys!" said Fruitie in the most basketish tone he could muster.  Of course, he wasn't mustering this tone intentionally, he was just mustering it.

"I will not lose!" Scott yelled as if that were his battle cry.  He sprinted as hard as he could toward the ball, not caring who got in his way.  He pushed down people on his team, as well as people on the other team.  He NEEDED that ball.  The ball was in close range but just as he bent down to pick up the ball he spotted a pair of shoes.  Slowly, he scanned the owner of the shoes only to see Remy.  He stood up, clutching the ball tightly.

"You want da goal?" Remy said.  "You gotta get by Remy first."

"There's only room for big kid in THIS field!" Scott declared.

"Must Remy remind you…" Remy said in the feh tone.  "Remy a lot older dan you.  A lot older dan our current sizes suggest."

"Yeah but in case you haven't noticed, I'm the one holding the ball." Said Scott with a smirk.

"Not for long." Said Remy.

There was a split screen effect that cut the screen down the middle diagonally.  On one side were Remy's crazy eyes and on the other side were Scott's insane sunglasses covered eyes.  They both glared at each other (though you couldn't tell with Scott) as dramatic music began playing.

Without warning, Remy ducked down and swung his leg out and tripped Scott.  Scott fell to the ground but caught himself and flipped up to his feet only to jump up in the air and deliver a jump kick aimed for Remy's face.

With his quick reflexes and remarkable agility, Remy was able to bend over backwards and avoid Scott's kick.  His hands touched the ground and he used his momentum of climbing up Scott's body to flip over.  

Scott saw right through this and grabbed Remy's foot right before it reached his face and tossed him forward.  Remy landed and stared at Scott dramatically.

"You have skills." Said Remy as he wiped the blood from his mouth.  "Rookie."

"Heh…" Scott laughed.  "Ready to give up?"

"Never."

"Well then let's go!" Scott declared as he and Remy were just about to start up again when Tootie and Fruitie ran out, each grabbing their own appointed child that was in their group.  They both looked INCREDIBLY disappointed and distressed.

"I can't believe you would do something like that!" Fruitie said to Scott.  "You KNOW how much I hate violence!"

"I do?" Scott said in a baffled tone.

"Remy, you're always starting fights and controversies!" Tootie said as she pulled out a handkerchief and started wiping the blood of Remy's face.

"HE started it!" Remy said, pointing at Scott and trying to pull away from Tootie at the same time.

"I think we should end this game." Said Fruitie.  "It confuses the kids and is incredibly dangerous."

"WHAT?!" yelled Pietro.  "NO!!  I WANT A TURN!!!"

Tootie felt really bad for Pietro since she couldn't help but peg him as her favorite since he was the only one who seemed to like her.  Or even be able to tolerate her for that matter.

"All right, one more round." Said Tootie as she put the ball down.  "Everyone whose name starts with a 'P'!"

"That's ME!" Pietro yelled as he zipped out at light speed, grabbed it and heaved it into his goal before Tootie could even say, 'That's right, little fella!'

"That kid is FAST." Said Fruitie in a dumbfounded voice.  Tootie was at a loss for words.

"Good job, stupid brother." Said Wanda as Pietro walked back over to his group with a proud expression on.  "That was about as abnormal as it gets.  They're probably suspecting mutants by now."

"We got another point!" St. John cheered.

"Well, I guess that is a LITTLE cool…" said Wanda reluctantly.  "Though I wish that someone ELSE got the point."

"I got three." Said St. John.

"No you didn't." said Remy.

"Technically I did." Said St. John.

"No, technically you threw the ball and successfully got it into one of the nets that just so happen to not be OUR net." Said Remy.

St. John stared at Remy with a confused expression on his face.

"Never mind…" Remy said, rolling his eyes.

"All right!!" said Tootie.  "Everyone come in!"  All the 'kids' ran in from their positions to where Tootie and Fruitie were waiting.

"We're going to split up our regular groups again and go our separate ways to our own activities." Fruitie explained.

"The Carrots, please follow me to tie-dye!" Tootie exclaimed.

"As for the Birds, we're heading to candle making!" Fruitie finished.

As the Carrots walked away from the Birds, the last thing they heard was Scott excitedly exclaim, 'Candle making?!  No way!!"


	10. Red Dye and Old German Customs

"I want to tie-dye myself!" St. John said as he ran up and grabbed Tootie's hand but then dropped it a second later, appalled that he would do such a thing.

"I don't think you can tie-dye yourself, Johnny!" Tootie laughed.  "Oh my!  Kids say the darndest things!"

"Well what can we tie-dye?" asked Pietro.  "I didn't bring anything white."

"Well, the camp description said to supply your child with a white T-Shirt but the camp is ALWAYS PREPARED!!" Tootie announced as they entered the tie-dye building which was actually just the Art and Crafts building again.

"I don't want to tie-dye." Said Wanda.  "I want to finish my box-stitch."

"Well, tie-dying doesn't take too long!" Tootie said.  "So you can tie-dye and THEN do your gimp!"

Tootie then sat everyone down at a table where there were four miniature T-Shirts lying down on the table and elastic bands scattered around the table.

"Too bad 'dis won't fit Remy when he's big again…" Remy said sadly as he held up the little shirt.

"How do I make a spiral?" asked Pietro.  "I want a spiral!"

As Tootie began instructing Pietro on the fine art of spiral tie-dye, the other three set to work wrapping their T-Shirts with elastic bands.

"There." Said Wanda as she put her T-Shirt down that was wrapped in a total of ONE elastic band.  "I'm done.  Now dip my shirt in pink!"

"I think it'll look better with more elastics." Said Tootie.  "Otherwise, you'll have an all pink shirt with one little white line going down it."

"Remy want a bull's-eye." Said Remy as he seemed to know exactly how to wrap his T-Shirt.

"I need more elastics!" St. John said to the world as he held up his T-Shirt that was wrapped in so many elastic bands that the shirt was hardly visible.

"I think that's enough elastics for you…" Tootie began.

"HEY!!" yelled Pietro.  "You have to finish making mine into a spiral!"

"I did!" Tootie said.

"Where is it?!" Pietro demanded.

"Right there!" Tootie said, pointing to the shirt that was lying on the floor.  Pietro ran over at the speed of sound and then back over with the shirt, holding it out for Tootie to grab.

"Mine first!" he commanded.

"Very well." Said Tootie since Pietro was her favorite.  "What colors do you want your shirt to be?"

"Um…green!!" Pietro said randomly.

"I know!" said Tootie.  "How about you make yours blue and I could do Wanda's up so it looks just like yours!"

"YEAH!!!" said Pietro, sounding so much more excited than he should be.

"No!" said Wanda, crossing her arms.  "I REFUSE to wear the same thing as Pietro.  Again.  Other than what we're wearing right now."

"But it will be so CUTE!" said Tootie.

"I don't WANT to be cute." Wanda said.

"Can I make mine red?" St. John said, climbing up on a chair so he could see into the tubs of colors that were on the table.

"Please don't climb up here and hang over the tubs." Said Tootie.  "I don't want you to fall in."

"I want me to fall in!" said St. John.

"You'd be stained red for days!" Said Tootie. 

"COOL!!" St. John exclaimed but before he could do anything further, Tootie lifted him up and put him on the ground.  

"Now go and finish tying up your shirt." She explained.

"I did." Said St. John as he held up a mass of rubber bands.

"That might be a bit much." Said Tootie.

"No." said St. John.  "It'll be cool!  Kinda like an explosion!"

Tootie decided to ignore St. John and turned back to Pietro.

"So what'll it be?"

"BLUE!!" Pietro cheered excitedly.

"All right!" Tootie said.

Meanwhile in candle-making…

"Can I dip my hand in?" asked Lance looking at the big bucket of boiling hot melted wax.

"It'll hurt a lot." Said Fruitie.  "I'd prefer if you didn't."

"But I really want to…" Lance said sadly.

"So, I would assume that all we do in candle-making is make candles…" Kurt said as he held a piece of string and stood in line until it was his turn.  

"That's right!" sang Fruitie.

"What fun is that?" Kurt asked.

"LOADS of fun!" Fruitie answered.  "Do you not make candles in Germany?"

"Um…well, _I _didn't but I'm sure there were people who did." Kurt answered as Scott dipped his piece of string into the wax and then into the water and then into the wax and then into the water and so on…

"Hey!" said Kitty who was standing behind Scott.  "Scott dipped his string into the wax four times!  You said we only got to do it three times!"

"Well I'm the oldest." Scott said.

"That's not fair." Said Kitty, crossing her arms.

"Well, from now on I'll make sure to monitor how many time each person dips their string into the wax." Fruitie assured her.

"Tattletale." Said Scott as he went to the back of the line.  Kitty went up and dipped her wick into the wax for her four turns.  She took four just because Scott took four and she couldn't have Scott taking an extra turn and not her because that just wasn't fair.

Then it was Kurt's turn.  He went up, dipped his wick the proclaimed number of times and then went to the end of the line.

"That was strangely enjoyable." He said to himself as he looked at his extremely thin and lame candle.

"And you can shape it into whatever you want while it's still warm and soft!" Fruitie explained as he twisted his candle around into the shape of a star and began dipping it.

"You can make a STAR candle?!" Lance marveled as he handed his candle to Fruitie.  "Fruitie, make mine a star!"

"All right!" said Fruitie as he made Lance's candle star-shaped.

"I'm not making a star candle." Said Kitty since she wanted to be a rebel since she was the only girl in the group.

"Hey!" said Kurt as he looked out the window.  "Can we dip leaves in the wax?  It would be a leaf candle!!"

"Um…no…" started Fruitie.

"Why not?" whined Kurt.  "We ALWAYS dip leaves in wax in Germany!  You'd be breaking our oldest custom!!"

"Well, I wouldn't want to do a thing like that!" said Fruitie nervously.  "You may go and get a leaf."

"Can I too?" asked Lance as he dipped his string in for a fourth…fifth… SIXTH time!!  He wasn't going to go to the end of the line until someone caught him so he candle continued to grow.

"HEY!!" Scott said, pushing Lance out of the way.  "He's cheating!"

"You did the same thing!" said Kitty, putting her hands on her hips.

"But I counted and he dipped SEVEN times!" Scott announced.

"Shows how much you know, Summers." Said Lance.  "I dipped SIX times!"

"That's still more than you're allowed!" said Scott.  "TWICE as much as a matter of fact.  I think you should skip your next turn."

"No way!" yelled Lance.

"Yes way." Said Scott as he crossed his arms.

"Scott, Lance…" said Fruitie.  "No fighting.  Lance, go to the end of the line.  Scott, stop yelling at Lance."

As soon as Scott rejoined Lance at the end of the line, he looked at him threateningly.

"Remember…" he said.  "I still have my powers in this little body so I can still blast you from here to the moon."

"Aren't you special?" asked Lance.  "I have mine too."

Suddenly, Kurt returned with a lilly pad.

"This is the leaf I want to dip!" he said.

"I don't think that will fit into the wax can." Said Fruitie.

"I'll make it fit." Said Kurt.

Meanwhile back in the Shack o' Tie-Dying…

"Look at this!" Tootie exclaimed as she finished taking all the rubber bands of St. John's shirt.  That was a long and grueling task.  It was pretty much a white shirt with very few random red splurges on it.

"WOW!!" St. John gasped, throwing his hands over his mouth.  He reached out his hands to grab it but Tootie held it out of his reach.

"It's not dry yet." Tootie explained.  "I'm going to hang it up until it's dry."

"But I want it NOW…" St. John complained.

"I'll just put it next to Pietro and Wanda's." Tootie said, going outside and hanging it on the handrail next to two nearly identical spiral shirts only one was pink and one was blue.

"I didn't want a spiral." Wanda complained.

"If you didn't have a spiral, then you wouldn't be like Pietro!" Tootie laughed.

"I know." Said Wanda.  "That was one of the main reasons I didn't want one!"

"I can't wait to wear mine!" Pietro cheered as he ran around in circles really fast in a mad excitement.  Remy stuck out a long stick that he found on the ground out and tripped Pietro.  "What'd you do that for?!"

Remy pulled Pietro in really close.  "Remy don't wanna see you usin' your powers anymore.  Okay?"

"Why not?" Pietro whined.  "I'm so fast!"

"Obviously." Said Remy.  "It's annoying and you're gonna get caught."

"I want to wear my shirt now!" said St. John as he went and plucked his shirt off the handrail as Tootie was busy dipping Remy's shirt in colored dye.  St. John's shirt was more or less completely dry because of the lack of dye on it.  "Needs more red."

Then, St. John wandered over to the vat of red dye.  Tootie was busy at the GREEN dye at the moment so she didn't see that happening.  (She also didn't see Pietro running around in circles again even after Remy told him to stop.  She also didn't see Wanda zap him to make him stop or Remy blow up an innocent acorn just for fun.  Nope.  She didn't see ANY of it.)

"Let's see." Said St. John, climbing up on the table and peering into a vat that had red liquid in it.  (The vat with green liquid was, obviously, at a different table and that's where Tootie was.)

"What are you doing?" Remy asked since he has a tendency of making sure that everything was okay.  Well of course!  He's the big kid after all!!

"I'm just going to put more red on my shirt." Said St. John as he dropped his shirt into the vat so that some splashed up on his clothes and face.  He wiped his face with his clothes and then reached down to get the shirt out of the vat, his arms going into the dye all the way up to his elbows.  Then he pulled the shirt out of the vat and held it in front of him.  It was dripping madly and splashing up onto him and all his clothes and everything but he only just kind of stood there until Tootie turned around just then to go to the BLUE dye since that was on the table that had the red dye on it.

Tootie gasped and dropped Remy's shirt.

"What have you done?!" she screeched.

"My shirt needed more red." St. John said innocently.

"Not only did I specifically tell you not to but for one, there were no elastics on your shirt so it's just a red shirt now and for two, you weren't wearing gloves!" Tootie explained in a flustered voice.  "That dye will never come out!"

"Never?" St. John asked as he looked at his arms.

"Well, it'll come off your arms and your face after a couple of days but it'll never come off of your clothes."

"Remy told him not to." Said Remy.  "But would he listen?  No."

"Thank you Remy." Said Tootie with a sigh as she signaled to St. John to leave the building and go to the bathroom.  "Try not to drip everywhere on the way."

"Should Remy go too?"

"Perhaps you should." Said Tootie.  "I'll finish unwrapping your shirt for you."

"No." said Remy.  "Wait until Remy comes back.  Remy wants to see it."

"Oh all right." Said Tootie.  So Remy ran after St. John to the little boy's room to help him clean the red dye off of his entire body.

He found St. John standing next to the sink in attempt to scrub the horrible red dye off of himself.

The two stood there in silence for a moment so the only sound was running water.

"Why…" started Remy.

"I DON'T KNOW!!!" St. John yelled as if he was anticipating the question the entire time he was standing there.  "Something compelled me!  I wanted more red and usually I would have intelligently dipped it in without getting any dye on myself but not this time!  I went and figured it would be more fun and effective if I practically jumped in myself!"

"Wait…did you say 'intelligently'?" Remy said.

"Yes." Said St. John with a frown.

"Well, now you're red." Remy pointed out.

St. John looked down at himself and then back at Remy with a dopey smile.  "I know, isn't it cool?" he said deviously.  But then he slapped himself across the face.  "NO!  IT'S BAD!!  What am I saying?!"

"Remy had no idea dat schizophrenia was among one of your many mental illnesses." Remy said.

"It's NOT!" St. John said angrily.  "You have to admit that you've been feeling weird lately and done things that you couldn't explain later!"  Remy scratched his chin and pondered.  "Haven't you noticed Pietro acting AWFULLY strange?"

"Yeah…" Remy said.  "REALLY strange…"

"Why am _I _the one putting all this together?!" St. John ranted as he pushed the button to the soap dispenser numerous times so there was a huge soap pile on the side of the sink.  He stared at it and became momentarily humored but then he realized that if this was going to continue to humor him, the pile would have to be much bigger.  So he continued to press the button time after time.

"You were saying…?" Remy led.

"Oh right!" said St. John.  "Look!  I just did it again!"

"You done dat before?" Remy said, looking at the soap that was now dripping on the floor.

"Not THAT!!" St. John said.  "Are you PURPOSELY acting stupid just to annoy me or what?!"

"You don't really have any ground to stand on." Remy said.

"What?!" demanded St. John.  "What about Pietro?!  Is he or is he not just extremely… what's the word…"

"Literate?" suggested Remy.

"Yes." Said St. John.  Then he paused and thought about it.  "NO!!!"


	11. Wouldn't it Be Great if There was Nothin...

MEANWHILE!!!

"You all ready for your first swimming lessons?!" said Fruitie excitedly as he cannonballed into the pool of chlorine infested water.

"Well, I've got my specially made goggles that the Professor made for me." Said Scott as he adjusted his swimming goggles that looked just like his sunglasses except they were goggles.  But DUH!!

"You're actually going in?" said Kitty.

"Yeah." Said Scott.  "Why wouldn't I?  It's hot.  You're telling me YOU'RE not?"

"Well, you wouldn't either if you were wearing THIS bathing suit!" Kitty said, pointing out her bathing suit that was pink with little jewels and Barbie on it and a frilly skirt and shoulder frills and all those other nauseating things that you would picture on a small female child.

"As a man, I would never wear that anyway." Scott said, trying not to look.

"You ARE the one who's wearing the Ninja Turtle bathing suit." Said Lance who was wearing just a plain orange bathing suit with drawstrings and pockets.

"I watched the show when I was younger and wearing it makes me feel nostalgic." Said Scott, looking mortally offended.

"Yeah whatever." Said Lance.  "That wasn't what you said while you were putting them on."

"COME ON GUYS!!!" said Fruitie excitedly but everyone ignored him.

"Oh?" said Scott.

"Yeah." Said Lance.  "If I remember correctly, it went kinda like this: 'Ninja Turtles?!  OH BOY!!  I LOVE NINJA TURTLES!!'"

"That never happened." Said Scott stoically.

"Yes it did." Said Lance, more to Kitty than to Scott.

"Where's Kurt anyway?" said Scott, trying to change the subject as he scouted the area for Kurt.  At that exact moment, Kurt rounded the corner draped in a towel.  He was wearing a BLUE bathing suit!!  YAY!!

"It's harder than it looks to be me." He sighed.  "I don't think my watch is water proof."

"Just take it off then." Said Lance.

"I don't think so." Said Kurt.

"Why not?" asked Lance.

"Lance…this is my WATCH we're talking about." Kurt said, pointing to his image inducer.

"What…was it expensive or something?" Lance said, utterly confused.

"Lance, just shut up." Said Kitty.

"All right all of you, if you don't come in the water right now then I'll have to come over there and get you!" Fruitie declared as he swam over to the edge of the pool and pulled himself out.  "Kitty, I LOVE your bathing suit!"

"I hate it." Said Kitty in a grumpy tone.

"Don't say that!" said Fruitie.  "Barbie is so SWELL!!"

"Yeah…" said Kitty, rolling her eyes.  Just then, Tootie and The Carrots rounded the corner all clad in their bathing suits.  For some reason, Remy wasn't there!!  OH DEAR!!

"Kurt!" said Fruitie.  "How do you say, 'Welcome Carrots!' in German?"

"It's the same!" said Kurt.  "Isn't that incredible?!"

"Very much so!" Fruitie said, turning to Tootie.  "Now, why are you all late?"

"We had a bit of an accident with the tie-dye." Tootie explained, discretely gesturing towards St. John who was ever so red.  Luckily, he was not wearing a red bathing suit or else he would have looked even more silly than he does.  He was actually wearing a black bathing suit with elaborate flames on it.  This bathing suit… however… looked slightly too big for him.

"Ahh…" said Fruitie, nodding his head.

"_I _didn't have an accident with the tie-dye." Said Wanda who was dressed in a pink bathing suit with the skirt of course.  Up on the chest, her name was written in pretty cursivey blue lettering.  Pietro was wearing a blue bathing suit with his name lovingly written on one of the legs except it was in PINK lettering!!

"I never said you did." Said Tootie.

"You implied it." Wanda replied.

"No I didn't." Tootie said, sounding as cheerful as ever.

Wanda crossed her arms and looked as though she wasn't going to retort but at the last second, right before Tootie stopped listening/caring, Wanda threw in a scornful, 'Yes you did.'

Just then, Remy rounded the corner as well fully clothed while caring a lime green bathing suit.  "St. John, you took Remy's bathing suit, didn't you?!" he demanded.

"No!" said St. John as he grabbed the drawstring and pulled it tight.

"So you're saying dat you got packed TWO bathing suits and one of dem somehow got into Remy's bag?" Remy said, displaying the tag for the whole world to see.  Sure enough, it said 'Allerdyce'.

"Johnny…" said Tootie, sounding disappointed.  "Each camper is only allowed ONE bathing suit."

"THIS one is mine!" said St. John.

Tootie leaned over and looked at the tag that said 'LeBeau'.  

"Hey!" said St. John.  "You have just invaded my personal space!"

"That's NOT your bathing suit." Said Tootie.

"Yes but that WAS my butt you just looked at!!" St. John said in a very betrayed tone.

"I didn't look at that, I looked at the tag!" Tootie said.

"No, you looked down the back of my pants!" St. John said.  "How am I supposed to know what you looked at and what you didn't look at?!"

"Why does it even matter to you?" Tootie said with a raised eyebrow.

"It DOES!!" St. John said.

"Can Remy have his bathing suit now?" Remy asked.

"Johnny, go into the bathroom and trade with Remy." Tootie instructed.  "While you two are trading, Fruitie and I will begin the lessons."

"Uh…RIGHT!" said Fruitie as he emerged from his secluded bubble in the corner.

"This is becoming a ritual for us." Said Remy as he pushed the door open to the bathroom.

"What, bathroom conversation scenes?" St. John asked.

"Yes." Said Remy as the two went in separate stalls.

"I am just scarred for life!" said St. John as he tossed the bathing suit under the little wall thing that separated the two and received the horrible lime green one.  "Tootie is probably my age and she just…looked down my pants!  And acted as though it was nothing!"

"Well you are three or something." Remy said as he began putting on the black bathing suit.

"I think I'm older than that." St. John said as he, very reluctantly, put the green one on.  "Like in the five, six, seven range."

They both emerged from the stalls and looked at each other.

"You look like a watermelon." Remy said.

Meanwhile, out with the swimmers…

"Come on!" Tootie tried to coax everyone as she attempted to get them closer to the edge of the water as Fruitie beckoned from the water.  "Into the water!  It'll be fun!"

"I WANT to go in, but I don't want to be the only one." Said Scott.

"I'm gonna get a running start!!!" Pietro declared.  And then there was a ZING!!  And then there was another ZING!!  And then there was a SPLASH!!!  Then Pietro rose up out of the water paddling around and looking as though he just had the greatest fun known to mankind and going back over to the shallow end where it was three feet deep so he could touch the ground.

"What does this kid eat?" Fruitie said in an amazed tone to Tootie.

"Well, you can go in now Scott!" said Tootie since she was used to Pietro being a ridiculously fast child.

"Okay…" said Scott nervously because he didn't want anyone to talk about him behind his back.  He civilly slid into the water until he was ready to go deeper.

"Now for the rest of you!" Tootie said to the remaining kids just as Remy and St. John returned from their bathroom excursion.  "I'm glad you two decided to join us!  No fights, I hope?"

"No." said Remy.  "Surprisingly, Remy didn't have to say a word for St. John to surrender da bathing suit."

"Okay." Said Tootie.  "Now in you go!"

Remy looked at the water.  "Remy don't swim." He said but you could tell he definitely made that up right then and there.

"Aw…do you need floaties?" Tootie said as she whipped out numerous floaties that you apply to your arms from behind her back.

"I WANT FLOATIES!!" Pietro called from the water.

"You don't need them." Tootie said to Pietro.

"I WANT THEM ANYWAY!!!" Pietro yelled.

There was a long drawn out silence until Tootie innocently gave each kid a boot and kicked them all into the water.

"Time to teach you all how to swim!" said Fruitie as some of the more discombobulated and less coordinated kids flailed around in the water, attempting to make it over to the shallow end.  "See?!  Swimming can be fun!  There's no reason to be afraid of the water!"

"I've had enough of this!" Wanda declared as she reached shallow water and looked as though she was going to kill both Tootie and Fruitie but then had the dilemma on which one she wanted to kill first so that delayed her for a whole two seconds and when she finally decided on Tootie, she went to zap her but was knocked over by Pietro.

"WATER MONSTER!!!" he yelled as he pushed her under the water.  "The Water Monster has claimed his first victim!!  Who will be next?!  MWA HA HA HA!"

He went trudging around in the water to chase after someone.  Of course, he didn't have super human speed under the water because…well… it's the water.  Have you ever tried running in the water?  Thought so.

When Wanda resurfaced…well, she was heapum big angry.  "All right… Tootie can be second…" she said angrily but then she put her hand on her mouth and spit something into her palm.  She gasped.  "I lost a tooth!" she said as a stream of blood trickled from her mouth.

"You can put that under your pillow and get something from The Tooth Fairy!" Tootie explained as she hopped into the water as well.  "Until then, though, we need to clean you up!"

"What kind of stuff will the Tooth Fairy give me?" Wanda asked as Tootie guided her out of the water.

"Oh I don't know!" Tootie said.  "A dollar maybe!"

"What about…MORE than a dollar?" asked Wanda as Tootie handed her a tissue to wipe her mouth.

"Maybe!" Tootie said enthusiastically.  "Do you want me to hold onto it until it's time to go to bed?" Wanda handed the tooth to Tootie and she pocketed it.  Tootie's death could wait until AFTER the Tooth Fairy came.  And Wanda knew how much Tootie adored her stupid twin brother and Wanda couldn't very well go and make Tootie sad after she had just given her this wonderful piece of advice about the Tooth Fairy…so Pietro could live.  For now…

She then rejoined everyone else in the water!  HURRAY!!

"Say…where did Kurt go?" said Fruitie all of a sudden.  "He always seems to be disappearing into thin air, wouldn't you say?"

The group let out a nervous chuckle and agreed.

"He's probably in the bathroom…" Fruitie assured himself.  "Let's just begin the lesson!"

Just then, there was the sound of a bell ringing.

"Oh dear!" said Fruitie, slapping his cheeks.  "We spent so long doing other stuff and getting into the water, that we wasted all our time with swimming and now it's time to get changed and go down to lunch!"

There wasn't too many arguments as the kids climbed out of the pool and grabbed their towels.  However, Pietro refused to get out of the pool for a while so both Tootie and Fruitie had to chase him around in the water and finally wrestle with him to get him out.

"Hey…dat's Remy's shirt." Said Remy as St. John pulled a shirt over his head.

"YOU HAVE OTHERS!!!" St. John yelled defensively.

"Why are you always trying to take Remy's stuff?" Remy said.

"Because." Said St. John.

"I'm glad to finally be out of that horrible bathing suit!" said Kitty as she strutted out of the girl's bathroom wearing a pink Barbie shirt.

"Uh…never mind." Said Lance who had already finished changing.

Remy turned away from the momentary distraction.  "Remy's serious." He said.  "Give him his shirt back."

"Oh look at the sky." Said St. John.

Remy gave an exasperated sigh.  "Tootie…St. John took my shir~~~irt." He tattled in that annoying tone that kids use when they're tattling.

Tootie walked over.  "Aww…that's so cute!" she exclaimed.  "I think he admires you because you're older than he is!"

"Remy just thinks he likes Remy's stuff…" Remy said as he picked up and glanced over the Bob the Builder shirt.  "Since his is kind of…" he paused, searching for the right words and just restrained himself from saying 'literate'.  "Stupid."

"I SO do not admire him." Said St. John.  "But I'm not wearing that Bob the Builder shirt either!!"

"You'll either wear YOUR shirt or you won't have lunch." Tootie said.  "You'll sit on time out."

"You can't do that!" St. John said.

"Oh yes I can." Said Tootie.  "If that'll teach you to stop stealing Remy's clothes."

"He's stolen Remy's pajamas, bathing suit and now his shirt…" Remy rambled off as he counted on his fingers.

"Yes, I know." Said Tootie.

"Just makin' sure." Said Remy.  "No one steals from a masta t'ief."

"FINE!" said St. John as he took it off and threw it at Remy.  "I didn't want to wear it anyway!!  Tootie, you just hate me because I'm LOUD and RED and OBNOXIOUS!!"

"You think I HATE you?" Tootie gasped, putting her hand on her heart.

"Uh…I'll take everyone down to lunch…" Fruitie said quietly as he hurried everyone else along so only St. John and Tootie remained.


	12. Barbie, Rapheal and Junior Juices

"What exactly just happened?" said Kurt as he suddenly rejoined the group.

"Where'd you go?" asked Kitty.

"Answer my question first." Kurt commanded.

"Remy and St. John had another petty argument." Kitty said, rolling her eyes.  "Remy seems to just start arguments just because he has nothing better to do…just because he's older and bigger than everyone else!"

"Uh…Remy's right here." Said Remy.

"Oh!" said Kitty, turning around nervously.

"Remy's arguments are not petty." He said.

"Of course not!" Kitty said, trying to back away.

"You said dey were." Remy reminded her.

"I didn't mean it!" Kitty assured him.

"Yes you did." Remy replied.

"Well, I take it back then." Kitty said.

"No you don't." Remy said as if he were annoyed.  "You're just sayin' dat."

"See?" Kitty said.  "You're starting an argument right now!"

"YOU started it." Remy said.

"No I did NOT!" Kitty argued.

Meanwhile, Lance, Kurt and Scott were having an enlightening conversation about which Ninja Turtle ruled the most.

"Leonardo all the way!" said Kurt.

"Oh Kurt, you're just saying that because he's blue." Said Scott because he's the older one and he has to say smart stuff like that.  "Raphael rocks the party."

"I like Michelangelo." Said Lance.

They looked at each other.

"Leonardo leads." Said Kurt.  "And…Donetello was stupid because he did machines."

"Raphael was cool but rude."

"Michelangelo was a party dude."

Even more meanwhile, Pietro and Wanda (IMAGINE THAT!!) were having a conversation!!

"WOW Wanda!" said Pietro.  "This is practically the only thing that you've done BEFORE me!  How much do you think you'll get from the Tooth Fairy?!"

"MORE than a dollar I hope." Wanda said.

"What if you got…a hundred dollars?" Said Pietro as stopped walking in sheer amazement.

"That would be awesome." Said Wanda.  "Then I could buy Power Wheels.  And with the left over money, I would buy a necklace and maybe some lipstick."

"Can you give me some?" asked Pietro.

"Maybe I'll let you drive in my Power Wheels." Said Wanda.  "But I'm getting a pink one where Barbie will talk on the phone with me.  So if you don't mind looking incredibly unmanly…"

"That would be fun!" said Pietro.  "Maybe I could talk to Ken!  He's a boy!  LIKE ME!!"

"I don't think Ken talks on the phone." Said Wanda.

"He might." Said Pietro.

"Barbie only talks to girls." Wanda warned.

"Well I don't want to talk to Barbie anyway!" said Pietro.  "I only want to talk to Ken."

"Ken won't talk on the phone." Wanda said.

"That's not true." Said Pietro.  "You don't KNOW."

"Yes I do." Wanda said.

"We're here!!" said Fruitie.  Everyone stopped their current arguments and looked around to see all the crazy people that they had seen the day before at the camp fire only now they weren't at a camp fire.  NOW they were at an assortment of tables eating their lunches!!  "The Carrots and The Birds are eating together today and we're sitting right HERE!!"

A few individuals threw their hands up and cheered.  They won't be specified to save them from humiliation.

"I'll go and get the lunches for today!" Fruitie declared as he frolicked off.

"You know what?" said Lance.  "Fruitie decides that we can watch ourselves way too often."

"But we CAN." Said Kitty.

"HE doesn't know that." Lance pointed out.

"Tootie's the opposite!" said Wanda.  "She doesn't even let us go to the bathroom or change our clothes by ourselves so stop complaining!"

"Who said I was complaining?" Lance said.

"It SOUNDED like you were." Said Wanda in a threatening voice.

"Okay FINE, I was." Said Lance, rolling his eyes.

"Good." Wanda said, crossing her arms.  Then Fruitie returned with a large basket filled with peanut butter sandwiches individually put into little baggies with love.

"Everyone sit down at the table!" Fruitie said as he slammed the basket on the table.  Everyone decided that since they were hungry anyway AND it was free food, they might as well just sit down and enjoy their peanut butter sandwiches.  They were also equipped with little Junior Juices that make the world go round.

Of course, despite the fact that Junior Juices make the world go round, for someone above the age of about five, they were far too small to quench their thirst.

"These are way too small." Said Scott as he finished the juice box and put it down on the table.

"Remy want another one." Remy declared.  "Or even better, a regular sized juice box."

"You each get one!" Fruitie explained.

"What about that one?" Remy asked, pointing to the one remaining one.

"Oh, that's Johnny's!" Fruitie said.

"He doesn't like them." Remy said.  "Give it to Remy."

"I don't think so!" said Fruitie with a knavish chuckle.  "I wasn't born yesterday you know!"

"Besides, it wouldn't be fair if you got two and I only got one." Scott said.

"Remy's older dan you are." Remy said.

"I don't think so." Said Scott.  "I'm taller than you."

"No you're not." Remy said, sizing Scott up.

"Yes I am." Scott argued, sitting up as straight as he could.

Before the argument could elevate, Tootie suddenly returned and took Fruitie aside, whispering to him.

"We have to rearrange the groups at complete random." She said.

"Why?" asked Fruitie.

"Because we HAVE to split Johnny and Remy up but I don't want either of them to think that I don't like them because I gave one of them to you." Tootie explained.

"Are you just trying to dump your problem children on me?" Fruitie said in a disappointed tone.  "My group is wonderful and work together great!"

"That is NOT what I'm trying to do!" Tootie said.  "I'm sure Remy and Johnny are delightful children when they're not together…"

"No." said Fruitie.  "I think Remy has started an argument with just about everyone."

"Well, I've already talked to Smack and he said that that would be the best idea." Tootie said.  "So after lunch, we'll take all the kids up to Smack's office and do it at random."

"Very well…" sighed Fruitie.

"Johnny's already up there now so I'll take his lunch to him." Tootie said as she ran off with St. John's sandwich and Junior Juice.

Fruitie returned back to the group of 'children' who were all chewing very slowly and staring at him as if he didn't belong.  Which he didn't.  Because he was fruitie.

"You kids almost done?" he asked cheerfully just so they wouldn't suspect that something was in store for them.  Then again, Fruitie was always suspiciously cheerful.  SO suspiciously cheerful…it was kinky.  But no one seemed to notice so Fruitie's cheerful scheme worked!  NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

After they were finished with their sandwiches and Junior Juices, Fruitie escorted them up to Smack's secret underground lair… er… office.  Hehehe.


	13. Nap Time! Or Not!

"WELCOME!!!" said Smack happily.  "I'll cut right to the chase.  I hear there's been a bit of tension between some of your comrades so we're going to choose NEW groups at complete random so NO ONE will get their feelings hurt!"

"Three cheers!!" exclaimed Fruitie.

Everyone kind of ignored him.  In fact, Smack looked a bit perturbed that Fruitie had interrupted him so…FRUITLESSLY!!!  HAW HAW HAW!!!  I love puns.  Especially when they're bad and no one laughs except for the people who feel bad for the person who made the bad pun.  Hint hint.

"Well, I'm glad to say that I have already took the liberty of randomly choosing the names and creating new groups!" Smack declared as he held up a sheet of paper.  "Now for the moment of truth!  Everybody ready?"

"WE'RE READY SMACK!!!" screamed Tootie and Fruitie.  Pietro screamed it too.  A few other people did but they will not be specified.

"All right…" said Smack slowly, going for a dramatic effect.  "From now on, Lance Olvers, ("It's ALVERS!!" yelled Lance) Remy LeBeau, Pietro Maximoff and Catherine Pryde will be in The Carrots with Tootie!  That leaves Kurt Wagner, Scott Summers, St. John Allerdyce and Wanda Maximoff to make up The Birds with Fruitie."

Tootie was secretly cheering on the inside because she was happy with her new group.  She got to keep Pietro who was definitely her favorite.  She got the OTHER girl which made her happy because Wanda was kind of a psychopath even though she was a bit disappointed that she didn't get to have twins in her group anymore.  She also got to hold onto Remy whom she preferred over St. John.  St. John was loud and red and obnoxious.  Plus, she could hardly understand half the things he said because of his accent.  But she still didn't hate him.  No siree.  As for this Lance Olvers kid… yeah, she was indifferent about him.

Fruitie was smiling stupidly since he didn't really care WHO he got, as long as he got some kids to frolic with!!  He was glad he got to keep Kurt so he could learn some more German but other than that, it didn't matter to him.

"All right, everyone head back to your cabins!" Smack said suddenly.  "I already moved all your stuff to the correct places so don't worry your little heads about doing it yourselves!  So get moving!"

And with that, Smack booted the group out the door.  Not literally.  He actually…well, YES literally.

Everyone was escorted back to their cabins that they would be staying in from now on unless the groups get changed AGAIN.

"All right, Birds!" said Fruitie excitedly as his new group of Kurt, Scott, Wanda and St. John entered the cabin.  "We're going to cleanse ourselves and then take a nap!"

"A NAP?!" St. John yelled in an appalled tone.

"At least I'm not with my stupid brother anymore." Wanda said as if nothing would make her happier.  And you know what?  Nothing probably would.  Unless she were to kill Magneto.  AND Pietro.

"Now you all climb into your little beds and I will go into my bedroom and hit they hay." Said Fruitie as he entered his room and closed the door behind him only after changing into his David the Gnome pajamas and kissing his teddy goodnight.

"So he's not going to offer to help put on our pajamas or demand to kiss us goodnight or even make sure we're even going to bed?" asked Wanda in a surprised tone.

"No." said Kurt.  "He tends to just assume that we're all teenagers or adults."

"Which we are." Scott made sure to add.

"Yes." Said Kurt.  "Yes we are."

"I don't need a nap." Said St. John.  "I'm too old for one by about fifteen years.  Does Fruitie lock the door like Tootie does?"

"Heh…Tootie Fruitie…" chuckled Scott warmly.  Then he coughed cleared his throat.  "Yes.  He locks the doors unfortunately."

"Not that locked doors are a problem or anything!" Kurt announced as if they would forget that he could teleport if he didn't remind them.

"Oh right!" said St. John.  "I forgot about that!"

"Escaping will be a lot easier with YOU." Said Wanda as she looked right at Kurt.

"But if we escape, we'll be kicked out of the X-Men and you guys will be kicked out of YOUR teams!" Kurt said.

St. John and Wanda looked at each other before shrugging flamboyantly.

"Oh shucks." Said St. John.

"Well, I refuse!" said Scott.  "Being kicked out of Professor Xavier's X-Men is my worst nightmare!"

"I have an utterly random question that's just been plaguing me." Said St. John to Scott.  

"And what's that?" asked Scott with interest.

"Are you called the 'X-Men' because Professor Xavier thought it would be cool to name an entire group of 'men' after him because his name begins with an X or is there some sort of secret to the name that only you guys know?" St. John asked.

"Um…I never thought of that before…" said Scott as he scratched his chin.

Meanwhile, in the other cabin…

After Tootie made sure that everyone was in their beds and comfortable and didn't need any water or kisses goodnight, she walked into her own room where she left the door a crack open so she could make sure that no one died while she wasn't there to supervise.

"Have a good nap!" she said before she left.

"What's left of it…" said Lance as he thought about half of the hour being wasted by Tootie's need to check everything.

"Get used to 'dat." Said Remy.  "You'll have to deal with it EVERYWHERE."

"Well at least you didn't have the perverted male counselor that seemed to enjoy the company of little boys a bit too much." Said Kitty.

"As if YOU'RE a little boy!" Lance said.

"Remy t'ink Tootie was da same way." Said Remy.  "Remy don't know whether to believe him or not but St. John been sayin' 'dat Tootie been feelin' him up and lookin' at him in inappropriate places."

"We were there." Said Lance.  "She looked down the back of his bathing suit, right?"

"That's still a little weird." Said Kitty.  "I would never do that to the kids I was babysitting.  Especially without permission!"

"Hey guys!" Pietro whined.  "I'm trying to sleep but you are being too loud!"

"Oh and dere's da little matter of Pietro." Said Remy.  "He t'inks he's actually four or five or whatever."

"Hey stop talking about me behind my back!" Pietro cried.

"We're not." Said Lance.  "You're right here."

"Yeah but you're talking about me as if I'm not even here!" whined Pietro.

"So?" said Kitty.

"I don't LIKE it!" Pietro continued to whine and then began sniffling.

"Stop that." Said Remy since it obviously offended him.

"You're all so mean to me." Pietro pulled out of nowhere even though it was somewhat true to an extent.

"Be quiet." Remy said as he started kicking Pietro's bed since Remy is, after all, lying in the bunk bed below him.

"Hey!!" Pietro yelled.  "I can't sleep if you're kicking my bed!!"

At the sound of any hint of commotion, the door to Tootie's room flew open.

"What's going on here?!" she said dramatically.

"They're all making fun of me!" wailed Pietro.

"That's not true!" Kitty said defensively.  "I didn't say anything!"

"Neither did I!" Lance said.

"Remy either." Remy said even though it was a lie.

Meanwhile, with the Birds…

"So which is the way home?" Wanda said as she tromped down the path.  Everyone kind of hesitantly followed after her.

"Why do you suddenly want to go home?" asked Kurt.

"Suddenly?!" Wanda yelled.  "I've wanted to go home this whole time!  I can't stand being here another minute!"

"Look!!" St. John yelled.  "Smack's starting the camp fire over there on the beach!!  Do you think they're making s'mores?!"

Everyone stared at him.

"You're still red." Said Scott.  "When are you not going to be red anymore?"

"I DON'T KNOW!!!" yelled St. John probably at the top of his lungs.  Maybe even ABOVE his lungs.

"Let's go check out the campfire!" said Kurt.

"Or lack of campfire." Said Wanda.  "Smack is having a REALLY hard time getting it started."

"I could help him." Said St. John.  All four of the smidgits made their way down to where Smack was having an ever so hard time starting the fire.  There was no one there quite yet since campfire time didn't start for a little while.

"What are you four doing here?" asked Smack.  "Shouldn't you be napping?"

The four stared at him blankly.

"We thought you might need help with the campfire." Said St. John.

"OH HURRAH!!" cheered Smack as he completely forgot about all his morals and ethics and values.  "I always appreciate the help from my campers!"

"I'm very good at helping." Said St. John.

The other three were still processing the situation.  Remy wasn't there to be quick for them.

"Wait…" started Scott suddenly as he scratched his chin.  "This just doesn't seem right for some reason…"

"I can't even seem to get it to spark!" Smack explained.

"Not even one LITTLE spark?" St. John asked.

"Well…no." Smack said with a shrug.

"I'm really good at striking matches." St. John said.

"I don't know about that." Said Smack.  "I can't allow you to play with matches at your young and tender age."

"Hey!!" said Kurt, shaking Scott around to get his undivided attention.  "He shouldn't be near fire!"

"Oh right!" said Scott, grabbing St. John.  As Smack just kind of stood there in a very immature fashion, Scott dragged St. John off and the other two followed.

"NOOOOOO!!" St. John said, reaching his hands out for the campfire.  "Fire!  I'm going into withdrawal!"

"That took longer than it should have." Said Kurt to Scott.

"I didn't see you processing to very fast." Scott pointed out.

"I knew it all along." Said Wanda.

"Why didn't you say anything?" asked Scott.

"Because I was hoping that maybe he would kill Smack and burn this whole camp down." Wanda answered.

"I WOULD have." St. John assured her.  "But it's too late now.  Unless… Wanda!  You hold them down and I'll run back and burn stuff!!"

"No." said Wanda.  "You would clearly enjoy it too much."

"Aww…" said St. John sadly as if he couldn't possibly argue with that kind of statement.

"Besides, we're leaving now." Wanda decided.

"We're in our pajamas!" Kurt said.

"You're right…" said Wanda, looking down at her pink sleepers.  "Why did I put THESE on?!"

"I'M not wearing pajamas." Said St. John proudly.

"Yeah, that's because you were afraid of them." Scott reminded him.

"Did you see that monkey?!" St. John yelled.

"Well, I guess there won't be any harm in changing." Said Wanda.  "As if my clothes are any better than this."

The four went back to the cabin.

"Everyone be very quiet so that Fruitie doesn't wake up…" Kurt started but suddenly, Fruitie flung his door open.

"You kids ready to go to the campfire?!" he asked excitedly.

Meanwhile, with the Carrots…

"We have to go to ANOTHER campfire?" groaned Lance.

"The campfire is FUN!" Tootie exclaimed.  "Now everyone get dressed!  Pietro, I arranged with Fruitie ahead of time what he would dress Wanda in so you two can wear the same thing again!"

"YAY!!" cheered Pietro.

"Remy remembers what happened at da LAST campfire he was at." Remy said, reminiscing about how he had to baby-sit St. John as he put on some kind of crazy outfit that you can imagine.  No, strike that.  It had the Incredible Hulk fighting Spider Man on it.  "Guess he's gonna have to go through dat again."

"Is there anything in my wardrobe that doesn't have ponies or rainbows or Barbie on it?!" Kitty yelled, turning her bag upside down and dumping it on the floor.  After rummaging through the pile for a moment, she finally emerged with a purple shirt.  "Butterflies!"

Lance had just finished clothing himself with the black shirt with the male Power Rangers on it.  He didn't mind.  He actually liked it.  He wanted to be Tommy and Kitty could be Kimberly and they could go out on dates and save the world together.  But Kimberly wasn't on the shirt.  Only Zack, Jason, Tommy and Billy.  It was okay though since girls have cooties anyway.

So then they went down to the campfire where they, unsurprisingly enough, met up with the Carrots!!!  It seems kind of ludicrous that they split up in the first place, doesn't it?


	14. Plans for the Future

"Sorry campers!!" said Smack from down in the front as he stood in front of an empty fire pit.  "We were having difficulties with the fire and unfortunately will not be having one tonight.  We'll still do fun activities though so don't worry your little heads!"

"He should have let me help him!" whined St. John.

Everyone else gave a sigh of relief.

"So, let's get these activities started!!" Smack said, jumping up and punching the air.  Then he landed and stood there silently.  For a very long time.

"Um…" said Lance but then he noticed that everyone in the entire camp was just sitting/standing there in silence with the exception of himself and his fellow X-Men comrades.  Okay, Lance is not an X-Man and neither are a few other people but you get my drift.

All of a sudden, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto came down the little isle where they were all sitting.

"Professor, what are you doing here?!" Scott asked, standing up.  It didn't really make a different that he stood up, though, because he was the exact same size standing up and sitting down.

"Well, we decided that this experiment was a little harsh." Professor Xavier replied.  "So we're going to take you home."

"YAAAAAAAAAAY!!!" cheered everyone as they jumped off their seats and threw their hands up in the air.  Who knows if they were currently in their right minds or not?

So then they all went to the X-Jet which was right there.

"So you're going to turn us back once we get back to the institute and then we can go about our lives and try to forget this entire experience?" Kitty said as she buckled her seatbelt.

"That's right!" said Mystique.  "No matter how fun it was seeing you small… I mean…no matter how CONSTRUCTIVE it was for you all to be small, it's about time that you all returned to normal."

"I WANNA SIT IN THE FRONT!!!" yelled Pietro as he ran past everyone at warp speed but then tripped over his shoelace.  After he sat up, he stared at his shoelace and looked around.  "DAD!!  TIE MY SHOE!!!"

"GASP!" said Magneto as he ran over probably just as fast as Pietro had been running before.  "I've never been asked to do something like this before!"

"I don't know how!" whined Pietro.

"Of COURSE I'll tie your shoe for you!" Magneto said as he lovingly tied Pietro's shoe.

"Thanks Dad!" said Pietro as he got that look that said that 'Wow, Dad!  You tying my shoe just made my day!'

And this LOOK made Magneto's day too!  He turned to Wanda.  "Wanda, do your shoes need tying?" he asked.

Wanda looked down at her little pink shoes that matched Pietro's.  "Well, yes." She answered.  "They've been untied all day but for some reason, I just couldn't do it myself."

"Then let ME help you!" Magneto said as he went over to Wanda and tied her shoes just as lovingly as he tied Pietro's…IF NOT MORE.  For all those years she was in the nuthouse, he was going to make up for it!  Starting by tying her shoes for her!  EXTRA lovingly!

"MAGNUS!" said Professor Xavier.  "It's time to go!  You need to drive the X-Jet because you know very well that I can't use the pedals!"

"There you go, Wanda." Said Magneto.  "All tied!"

"Thanks Dad!" said Wanda.  Magneto stood up looking all pleased with himself as he strutted away as Pietro walked over to Wanda.

"Isn't our dad the coolest?!" Pietro said.  "He can do EVERYTHING!"

"Yeah!" said Wanda.  "He's so strong."

Magneto, of course, heard this.  So he walked over to Professor Xavier who was just so incredibly impatient for reasons unknown.  "Charles," he said.  "I don't mind what you do with your X-Men, but I would prefer it if my children remained the way they are so that I could, you know, start all over."

"You mean…raise them all over again?" Professor Xavier said, scratching his chin.

"Yes!" said Magneto.  "And do things RIGHT this time!"  He paused.  "And, perhaps since their powers are completely developed, I could train them and they would grow up to be a pair of extremely powerful mutants and then we could fight as one big happy family…"

"Hey…" said Professor Xavier.  "That's not fair.  If you're going to do that then I am too."

"In that case, I'm going to keep Pyro and Gambit this way too so that I could have an even MORE super team!" Magneto said.

"So we're keeping Kurt little?" Mystique said from her seat in which she had Kurt in her lap and the seatbelt on them both.

"Well…I suppose it's YOUR call…" Professor Xavier said.  "He is your son after all."

"Oh definitely!" said Mystique.  "I feel the same way Magneto feels!  I want to do things right this time and actually be there for him!  Oh, could we make Rogue small too?"

"That may be pushing it." Said Professor Xavier as Magneto sat down in the driver's seat since he NEEDED to drive.

"So…can _I _turn back to normal?" asked Lance since he was eavesdropping and sitting close to the front.  "My future hasn't been spoken for."

"Sure, I don't have any qualms with that." Said Mystique.

"No, he may be part of my super team." Said Magneto.

"What?!" Mystique said, getting angry.  "You've already claimed Pietro and Wanda which are BOTH part of my team so you're not taking Lance too!!  He's going to be part of MY super team!"

"But I called him first." Said Magneto.

"Then I'm taking back Wanda and Pietro." Mystique decided.

"You can't do that!" said Magneto.  "They're my CHILDREN!"

"Then give me Pyro and Gambit." Mystique said.

"I refuse." Said Magneto.  "You can have Sabretooth."

"I don't want Sabretooth!" whined Mystique.

"Concentrate on driving, Magnus!" said Professor Xavier as Magneto turned around and just missed crashing into an orphanage.

It was around that time that they landed back at the Institute, still arguing about their Super Teams.


	15. Babysitting Experiences

"Let's just take them all to Forge and see what he says." Professor Xavier said, wanting to break up the quarrel.  "We might not be able to keep them like this anyway so before we say things that we don't mean to say, we should have Forge give his opinion."

"Good idea, Charles." Said Magneto.

"Let's leave them all in the care of Jean, Rogue and Evan so as not to cause a catastrophe while we are conversing with Forge." Said Professor Xavier as he telepathically called the three people who were just mentioned down to where they were.

"What is it, Professor?" asked Jean as she walked in and then gasped when she noticed all the small-ified people.  "What happened to them?!"

"Um…we don't know." Said Professor Xavier.  "We're going to go speak with Forge right now."

"About stuff." Said Mystique.

"So watch them while we're gone." Professor Xavier said.

"If anything happens to my children while I'm gone, I'm holding you entirely responsible!" Magneto threatened.  Then the three of them left to find Forge.

Jean stood there in a stupefied state for a minute just as Evan and Rogue strolled in nonchalantly while humming as if they didn't have a care in the world.

"What are all these kids…" started Rogue but then she paused.  "Wait a second…"

"What happened to them?!" Evan asked.

"I have no idea!" Jean said, fretting.  "And neither does the Professor!"

"Let's just assume that he'll figure something out to fix them." Said Rogue.

"Well, we have to baby-sit them." Said Jean.

"WHAT?!" yelled Rogue and Evan.

"That's why we were called here." Jean said.

"Now I can finally get back at Pietro!" Evan declared suddenly.

"NO!!" Jean yelled.  "Magneto threatened my life and is holding me personally responsible if anything happens to him!"

"We should just split them up evenly." Rogue suggested.  "Because it's easier to watch two or three as opposed to eight."

"Daniels, I'm in your group!" said Pietro.

"HEY!!" said Evan angrily.  "I know what you're planning!!"

"Oh come on, like he even knows what he's talking." Jean said.  "I'll take Wanda and Pietro just so I can make sure that nothing happens to them."  Then she looked over the group.  "Um…I'll take Scott too…"

"He's eight or something so don't do anything gross." Said Rogue.

"Please, who do you think I am?" Jean said, sounding offended.

"I'll just take…these three." Said Rogue as she grabbed the three that were closest to her which just so happened to be Remy, Kitty and Lance.

"Yes!" said Evan when he noted the fact that only Kurt and St. John remained.  "I only have two!  This is gonna be easy!"

"When's the last time you guys have had anything to eat?" Jean asked Scott, kneeling down so she was eye level with him.

"Um…lunch time?" Scott said, looking at everyone for confirmation.  They only shrugged and agreed.

"Let's get them something to eat!" Jean said.  "It's almost dinner time!"

Evan and Rogue agreed and they all led their appointed kids into the kitchen.

"FEED ME DANIELS!!" Pietro demanded as he sat himself down at the table.

"I'm not the one watching you!" Evan said, annoyed.

"How about Macaroni & Cheese?" Rogue asked as she pulled a few boxes of Craft Macaroni & Cheese.

"What shapes are they in?" asked Kurt as if it were important.

"Um…Spongebob Squarepants." Rogue answered, looking at the label.

"Yeah!" said Kurt.  So, as all the 'kids' sat idly by, Jean, Evan and Rogue cooked the Macaroni and set the table.  

MEANWHILE!!!

"So that's our plan, Forge." Professor Xavier explained to Forge who was just sitting there.  Listening.

"Sure, whatever." Said Forge.  "I really don't care what you guys do."

"But you're positive that it won't screw them up in any harmful irreversible way?" Magneto said nervously.

"I don't know." Forge replied.  "With every new invention, there are going to be bugs.  I have no idea what will happen to them!  For all I know, they might be dead!"

The three of them stared at Forge.

"Don't say that." Said Magneto.

"I was just kidding!" laughed Forge hesitantly.  "That would never happen with one of MY inventions because I'm Forge!  All my inventions and experiments are perfectly harmless!  I wouldn't worry about it if I were you guys."

"But if anything happens…" Mystique said.  "We're taking it out on you."

"And Jean." Magneto added.

"And Sabretooth." Said Professor Xavier.

"Actually, I just got a call from Colossus saying that Sabretooth died." Forge said, hanging his head low.

"Wait…Colossus called YOU?" Magneto said.

"Yes." Said Forge.  "Didn't you know?  Colossus and I are male friends."

The three stared at him in a stupefied state until suddenly, another Forge walked around the corner.

"Forge Two!  Bad!" the other Forge yelled, hitting Forge Two over the head.  Forge Two whimpered and ran away.  "Don't mind Forge Two.  I can't really control him or his sexual preference."

"Whatever." Said Mystique.  "We don't really care about Forge Two.  Could YOU give a straight answer about the condition of our henchmen?"

MEANWHILE!!!

Dinner passed without much event and then there was the dilemma on what to do next.

"Maybe we should just have them watch a movie." Said Rogue.  "That way we don't really have to watch them."

"No!" said Jean.  "We have to play with them!"

"Yeah, it could be fun…and different." Evan said slowly.

"Whatever." Said Rogue.  "You guys can play with them all you want but we're just going to watch a movie."

And with that, they all split up.

"What movie do you guys want to watch?" Rogue asked as she looked through a shelf of videotapes and Lance, Remy and Kitty sat down on the couch.

"My Little Ponies!" Kitty said.

"NO!!" yelled Remy and Lance.

"I don't think that's one of our selections anyway…" Rogue confessed.  "We don't really have very many kids movies here.  How about we just put on the television, okay?"  Rogue sat down on the couch with the small people armed with the remote control.

"Can Remy pick out somet'ing to watch?" Remy asked.

"No, I'll do it." Rogue said as she instinctively skipped over Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney, Toon Disney and all those other kids channels.

"Hey, go back!" said Lance.  "That was Legends of the Hidden Temple!  I wanna watch Legends of the Hidden Temple!"

"Lizzie Maguire!" Kitty yelled.

"Remy want to pick somet'ing." Remy insisted as he leaned over and tried to snatch the remote from Rogue.

"No, I don't think so." Rogue said, leaning away from him.  "I'll be picking out what we watch.  What time is it?  8:00?  Oh, 'Clabrina the Teenage Goth' is on and that's my favorite show."

"Aw man…" whined Remy, Kitty and Lance as Rogue flipped it to her favorite show.

Meanwhile!

"All right, my turn to count!" said Evan.  "You two have to hide.  I'm only going to count to thirty."  Then he turned around and started counting.

"Come on, I'll hide us!" said Kurt as he grabbed St. John's hand and teleported them into the laundry basket in his room.

"Let's hide in the kitchen!" said St. John, climbing out.  "Where the stove is!  We can turn it on and then when Evan comes in, we can BURN him!"

"Why?" asked Kurt.

"We'd never be 'It'!" St. John explained.

"But Evan would be burnt." Kurt said.

"Fine." Said St. John.  "We don't have to burn him.  We can just create a wall of fire around us and he won't be able to see us or tag us!"

"But he'd see the fire." Kurt pointed out.

"But he wouldn't see US!" St. John reminded him.

"Um…how about we just hide on the roof?" Kurt suggested.

St. John's eyes lit up.  "Yeeeaahh…" he said, grabbing Kurt's hand again.  Kurt then teleported them to the roof.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Jean, truth or dare." Said Wanda.

"Uh…truth!" said Jean.

"All right…" said Wanda as she thought.  "Do you have a crush on anyone?"

"EWWW!!" yelled Scott and Pietro.

"Um…well…SORT OF…" Jean said quietly.  "It's a little awkward right now."

"Who is it?" asked Wanda eagerly.

"I don't think I should say." Jean confessed.

"If you don't say then you have to the penalty!" Scott said.  "You have to put your head in the toilet and then flush it."

"When there's something in it!" Pietro added as he fell over on the ground in laughter since little boys just find that kind of stuff RIDICULOUSLY funny.

"Pietro, be careful!" Jean said because he just barely cleared the wall.

"I bet she's in love with YOU Pietro!" said Wanda.

"No way!" yelled Pietro.  "She's too OLD for me!"

"I beg your pardon!" said Jean, putting her hands on her hips.

"Pietro and Jean sitting in a tree!" sang Scott.  "K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

"NO!!" yelled Pietro.  "SHE'S OLD!!"

"If you guys get married then I'll have a sister who's practically as old as my DAD!" Wanda groaned.

"That's enough out of you three!" Jean said as she lifted them up off the floor in attempt to show them who was boss.

"Hey!" said Wanda.  "If my father knew you were doing this…!"

"That's right!" gasped Jean just was Wanda zapped her.  This, of course, cause Jean to drop all three of them on the ground with a SPLAT!

"I'M TELLING!!!" screamed Pietro.  "YOU'RE NOT A GOOD BABYSITTER!!"

"No!" Jean said frantically, recovering from Wanda's blast in record-breaking time as she attempted to caress away everyone's tears.

Meanwhile!!

"I don't know if Evan's ever going to find us." Said Kurt to St. John as the two of them sat on the roof.

"We should burn him." St. John said.

"Why?" asked Kurt.

"Because he's making us wait so long." St. John answered.

"It's just because we have such a good hiding spot." Kurt pointed out.  "But it IS getting cold up here."

"If only I had some fire…" St. John said sadly as if it were a tragedy.

"I wish I had something to do." Kurt said.  "The only things up here are a bunch of shingles and a chimney."

Kurt and St. John paused and looked at each other.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" St. John said with a devious smile.

"Yeah!" Kurt said excitedly.

"Yeah!" said St. John.  "So I'll grab your tail and then you'll hold the sides and maneuver us down the chimney!"

Kurt stopped.  "No." he said.  "I just want to jump down it."

"But that would hurt when we land." St. John said.

"It would hurt if you were hanging onto my tail." Kurt said.

"What if there's a fire in the fireplace?!" St. John yelled.  "If we just foolishly jumped down we wouldn't know until it was too late…" Suddenly, he stood up.  "What if there's a fire in the fireplace?  That would be so cool!"  He ran over to the chimney and looked down it.  "Do you think there's a fire in the fireplace?"

"Well, if there is then you're going first." Kurt said.

"No way!" St. John said.  "I'm older so you go first."

"You're not older!" Kurt argued.

"Yes I am!" St. John said.  "Look how much taller I am than you."

"But wouldn't you like it if there was fire down there?"

"But I wouldn't want to burn MYSELF!  I'll go down first only if I can hold your tail."

"But that hurts."

"It would hurt if I landed in the fire MORE."

"Why do we have to go down the chimney?" Kurt whined.

"It was YOUR IDEA!" St. John yelled.

MEANWHILE!!!

Rogue was watching Clabrina the Teenage Goth while the three small children fidgeted and whined.

"I wanna watch Heathcliff." Whined Lance.

"That show hasn't been on for ten years." Rogue said since there was a commercial.

"That's not true." Said Lance.

"Yes it is." Rogue said.

"Then I want to watch Captain Planet." Lance said, crossing his arms.

"Same with that." Rogue answered, rolling her eyes.

"Can we watch Maya the Bee?" asked Kitty.

"No!" Rogue said, sounding annoyed.

"Remy want da remote." Remy said, sounding grumpy.

Just then, Evan wandered in.

"Rogue, have you seen Kurt and St. John?" he asked.

"You only have two kids and you've already lost both of them?" Rogue said, raising an eyebrow.

"We're playing Hide-N-Seek and I'm the seeker." Evan explained.

"Well, Kurt's probably teleporting from hiding spot to hiding spot whenever you get near him." Rogue deducted.  "I don't know about the other kid.  He's probably off burning something."

"But…" started Evan but he was interrupted by a banging sound.  He looked around.  "What was that?"

"I don't know." Rogue said.

"It sounded like it came from the upstairs." Said Kitty.  Suddenly, there was more banging before the fireplace erupted with soot that formed a cloud in the corner of the room and made it completely black all around the fireplace.  Everyone decided that this would be a good thing to investigate and when the smoke cleared, they were not pleasantly surprised by Kurt and St. John sitting in the fireplace behind the little safe screen coughing and hacking.

"Cool!!" said Lance excitedly.

"Great job, Evan." Groaned Rogue as she pulled the safe screen off and lifted Kurt and St. John each out of the fireplace.

"Now we're all black!" complained St. John as if that was all he cared about.

"Then that means they have to take a bath." Rogue said.  "Evan?"

"Why me?!" Evan gasped.

"How many reasons do you want?" said Rogue, annoyed.  Evan didn't look like he was going to budge.  "One, these two are in your care.  Two, it's your fault they're dirty.  Three, you're a guy and so are they!"

"Rogue come on!" said Evan desperately.  "Can you imagine bathing Kitty and Wanda?!"

"How is that relevant at all?" Rogue asked.

"Well, let's just say that they got dirty and it was YOUR job to bathe them… wouldn't that make you feel awkward no matter WHAT age they are?!"

"Nope." Said Rogue even though secretly, she agreed but she couldn't very well have Evan winning.

"It's too weird for me." Evan said, crossing his arms.

"Well…" started Rogue, turning around to look at the mass of children that were supposed to be right there but they were, in fact…NOT!!  OH NO!!  "Where'd they all go?!"

"Weren't you watching them?!" Evan yelled.

"Weren't YOU?!" Rogue yelled back as the two of them tore down the hallway in search of the elusive group of…people.


	16. Bed Time! Or Not!

MEANWHILE!!!

"Then Jack said to the pirate, 'But I haven't got your treasure!'" Jean read to Scott, Pietro and Wanda who were all dressed in their pajamas and tucked underneath the blankets of Scott's bed.  "The pirates weren't about to give Jack any mercy!"

"Then what happened?!" Pietro yelled, bolting up in bed.

"Shhh…" Jean hissed.  "If you listen, you'll find out."

"Tell me!!" whined Pietro.

"I don't want to hear this story." Complained Wanda.

"I do!!" Pietro argued.  (In case you're wondering, yes, they WERE wearing their matching Winnie the Pooh sleepers.)

"I don't!!" said Wanda angrily.

"I DO!!" yelled Pietro.

"I…DON'T!!!" Wanda screamed as she zapped Pietro up into the air and then dropped him on the floor.  Pietro immediately burst into tears as Jean ran to his aid.  She tried her best to quiet his screaming but he had bumped his head.  Aww, poor Pietro.

Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps.  Her initial thought was that it was Magneto here to smite her for making one of his children cry but the door swung open and it was Rogue.  

Jean sighed with relief.

"All the kids are missing!" Rogue yelled over Pietro's screaming.

Jean gasped.

"How could they be missing?!" she demanded, still having to raise her voice over Pietro.  

Rogue looked at him and then touched his forehead.  He was zapped once again and then he died.  But not really.  He was only unconscious.  Which was a good thing because now he was quiet.  Jean gave another sigh of relief and then put him back in the bed next to Wanda who was over it entirely.

Jean looked back at Rogue.  "So, how could they be missing?" she said more calmly and quietly.

"Evan and I were talking and suddenly, they were gone." Rogue replied.

"Then we have to find them." Said Jean as she turned around to tell everyone to wait for her but Scott had already picked up the book and was now reading it to Wanda who appeared to be disregarding the fact that she didn't want to hear the story.  So Jean shrugged and she and Rogue ran out of the room.  Rogue, with her new found powers, ran EXTRA fast around the mansion in search of the children.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Where are we going?" whined Kitty as everyone followed after Remy since he was the biggest and he weighed the most.

"Just exploring." Remy replied as he went to open a door that surely had many secretive X-Men stuff in it when all of a sudden, Rogue came running in at top speed and threw herself in front of him.

"So that's where you all went!" she said angrily.

"We were just exploring." Said Kurt.

Rogue then gasped to see that Kurt and St. John had made a dirty black trail from where they had started to where they were now.  It was then that Evan came rushing into the room.

"Hey, if you just follow the trail then…!" he started but then he looked up to see that Rogue had already found them.  "Well, never mind."

It was then that Jean joined them in being downstairs.

"These two are a MESS!" Jean exclaimed, pointing at Kurt and St. John.  Then she turned to Rogue and Evan.  "All right, which one of you were supposedly looking after them?"

"That was Mr. Hide-n-Seek here." Rogue said, pointing at Evan.

"Well, we have to bathe them and put them to bed." Jean said.  "Evan…"

"Not you too!" whined Evan.  "Just because I'm a male doesn't mean it won't be awkward for me to bathe Kurt and St. John cause they're both actually older than I am and I'd never be able to look them in the face again!"

"Oh come on, Evan!" said Jean in an exasperated tone.  "It's no big deal!"

"Yes it is!" said Evan defensively.  "I wouldn't care if they were ACTUALLY younger than I am but they're not, Jean.  They're not."

"I know that." Said Jean.

"I couldn't get him to do it either." Said Rogue.  "Don't bother."

"Let's take them upstairs anyway." Jean said as she shooed the children up the stairs into Scott's room since that's where everyone was crashing anyway.

"Don't you think we should separate the boys and girls?" said Rogue when she spotted Wanda lying in between Scott and Pietro.

"They're too young to be thinking about that kind of stuff." Jean insisted.

"I still think…" Rogue started.

"Fine Rogue." Said Evan.  "They can sleep in YOUR room."

"I want to sleep in my own room." Whined Kurt.

"The boys can stay here in Scott's room and all the girls can go into Kurt's room." Rogue suggested.

"But I'M not a girl!" Kurt yelled.

"You'll sleep in here." Jean said.

"But I want to sleep in my own bed." Kurt said, trying to be difficult.  Then again, he could have NOT been trying to be difficult.  You never know with small children when they all of a sudden NEED something and you're trying to reason with them otherwise.

"You'll just have to deal with it." Said Jean.  "Now you and St. John have to clean yourselves off."

"I can do it by myself." Said St. John to Evan.  "Do you have any bubbles?"

"Uh…don't think so." Evan answered.

"Evan, if it bothers you so much to clean them, make them wear their bathing suits." Rogue suggested.

"Good idea!" said Evan, pointing his finger up in the air.

"I can clean myself all by myself." St. John said yet again since everyone was clearly ignoring him.  But it's not like that was a NEW thing.

Evan then escorted Kurt and St. John to the bathroom where they would be thoroughly cleansed!  Well, maybe not THOROUGHLY, but at least they wouldn't be covered in soot.

"Now, let's get everyone else in their pajamas and take the two girls to Kurt's room." Said either Rogue or Jean.  You can choose.  It's up to you.

"I'll take the girls." Said Rogue as she grabbed Kitty and Wanda and dashed out of the room at top Pietro speed before Jean could even question her.  Jean gave an exasperated sigh and looked at the remaining four children that were all awaiting her to do something.

"I'm hungry." Said Pietro to break the silence.

Meanwhile…

"No bubbles at all?" whined Kurt as he stood there in his little blue bathing suit.  "Awww…" 

"It's COLD!!!" St. John screamed as he sat down in the tub that was filled to the brim.  He was wearing his insane vivid green bathing suit.  He was covered in black soot.  Not only that…but he was also red because of the dye.  He's just a PALLET of colors today!  

"Sorry about that." Said Evan as he turned the faucet.

"Now it's too hot!" Kurt yelled since he was next to the spout.  Evan turned the heat down.

"I'm FREEZING!!" screamed St. John.

Meanwhile!!

"Is everything you own featured with Barbie or butterflies or rainbows?" Rogue said, sounding disgusted as she searched for Kitty's pajamas.  "Err…I think these are them."

"Thanks!" said Kitty as she took the pajamas, stripped down to nothing except her undies and then put on her pajamas.

Rogue could only stare at her.  Stupefied.

"I'm tired." Complained Wanda as she climbed into Kurt's bed.

"Well, that's why you're going to bed." Said Rogue, getting out of her stupefied state.  Kitty jumped in the bed too.

"I never share a bed at home." Kitty said.  "I get my own bed.  I have my own room at home."

"Not here." Rogue explained as she tucked both Wanda and Kitty into bed.

MEANWHILE!!!

"TEN LITTLE MONKEYS JUMPING ON THE BED!!" Pietro yelled as he jumped up and down on the bed.

"Be quiet!!" everyone hushed him at the same time as Remy and Scott grabbed either of his arms and pulled him down so he was sitting.  In case you're wondering, yes, he had recovered from Rogue's 'attack'.

"But I haven't even done nine monkeys or eight monkeys or seven monkeys or six monkeys…" started Pietro.

"Are you going to count all the way down?" asked Lance.

"I think you get the idea." Said Pietro reassuringly as he patted Lance on the back.

"So get into bed." Commanded Jean.

"You're not my mom." Said Lance defiantly.  "You can't tell me what to do."

"Well, I'm in charge." Said Jean.  "So you will do EXACTLY what I say or face the consequences."

"She lying." Said Pietro.  "She can't do anything to me because my dad will KILL her!"

Jean looked at an ominous painting of Magneto that, for one reason or another, was hanging up in the particular room that they were in.  It glared down at her evilly as if DARING her to hurt Pietro.

"Scott, why do you have this horrifying painting of Magneto in your room?!" Jean yelled, realizing that they were in Scott's room.

"It gets me pumped before a battle!" said Scott as he punched his fist into his open palm.

Jean rolled her eyes.  "All right, everyone lie down and go to sleep!"

"We don't want to." Remy said.

"I thought we already went through this." Jean said.

"We didn't." said Lance.  "Pietro was just saying that you don't have any authority over us."

Jean gave a heavy sigh and left the room for a moment.

"Nice job!" said Scott as he slapped everyone five.

"Yeah!" cheered Pietro.  "We're gonna stay up all night!!"

Then Jean returned with Rogue.  Rogue touched each of them and then all immediately fell limp on the bed.

"Thank you." Said Jean as she repositioned them all so it looked like they had peacefully snuggled up for the night.

"No problem." Said Rogue as she shook the world, zapped something with her laser eye vision, blew something up and then ran out of the room as fast as inhumanly possible.  Then Jean shrugged and left as well and passed by Evan as he walked in followed by Kurt and St. John who were both whining about their bath being extremely insufficient with water that was too hot or too cold and they didn't have any bubbles!!  But they changed into their pajamas without too much argument.

"But I'm not tired!" whined St. John.  "A cold shower ALWAYS wakes me up!"

"Well, good thing you took a cold BATH." Said Evan.

"It doesn't matter!" said St. John.  "It was still cold and it still woke me up!  I'm as wide awake as possible!"

"I didn't clean myself very well." Said Kurt as he looked at the soot that befouled his body so.  Had he not been covered in blue fur, he would be clean but baths take longer when you're blue and fuzzy.  However, Evan had only allotted a bath for people who lack the fur that so burdens Kurt.  "I think I need to get back in the tub."

"You're clean enough." Said Evan.  "Now get into bed."

"But there are FOUR people in the bed already!" Kurt pointed out.

Evan looked at the bed.  They might be smaller than usual but no matter how small they were, there was no way that the SIX of them could fit on Scott's twin bed.

"So does this mean we get to stay up all night?" asked St. John.

"We can sleep on the couch!" Kurt exclaimed.  "We'll go to sleep!"

"Yeah!" St. John said. "We PROMISE!!"

"I don't think that'll work…" Evan said hesitantly.

"PLEASE?!" pleaded St. John and Kurt as they got to their knees and begged.

"No!" said Evan.  "I have to stand my ground!  You guys will just have to sleep in my room!"

"YOUR room?" St. John said.  "That's even worse than sleeping in here."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Evan asked, sounding offended.

"It means that you stink!" said St. John, grabbing his nose.

"That is NOT true!" Evan argued angrily, taking a small child's insults WAY too seriously.

Then Jean walked in.

"What are you three doing?!" she demanded in a loud whisper.  "You're going to wake them up!  You wouldn't believe how hard it was to get them to finally go to sleep!"

"Well, if you're so great then make them go to bed too!" Evan challenged.

"I WILL." Jean said, lifting St. John and Kurt up off the ground and setting them lightly down on the bed.  "You two can sleep at the foot of the bed."

"I don't want anyone's stinky feet in my face!" Kurt said in a whiny voice.

"I doubt your feet will even reach theirs when you're lying down." Jean assured him.  "Now get under the covers!"

"I'm feeling cramped!" St. John complained.

"You're just making that up, now go to sleep!" Jean said.

"But it SMELLS!" Kurt sniffed.

"Worse than Evan's room!" St. John added.

"Hey!!" Evan yelled with a threatening look.  "You're crossing the line!"

"Quiet!" Jean yelled in her whispering yell.  "You're going to wake up the other four!"

"Good!" St. John said.  "If you make us sleep here, we'll wake them up on purpose!"

"Yeah!" Kurt said.  Then he turned to St. John.  "But where else could we sleep?"

"Well there's the couch…" St. John counted on his fingers.  "And Evan's stinky room.  And the roof or outside in a tent."

"Oh!" exclaimed Kurt.  "Can we sleep on the roof?  Can we?!  Can we?!"

"No you can not!" Jean said angrily.  "You can go to sleep right where you are and not make another sound!"

"We don't want to!" St. John said defiantly.

Jean, with an extremely annoyed expression, used her telepathic powers to summon Rogue back.  Rogue was there in a flash since she was feeling unusually courteous today for one reason or another.  "Yes?" she asked.

"These two." Jean said, pointing to Kurt and St. John.

"What would you guys do without me?" Rogue said, rolling her eyes as she was over at the foot of the bed in a split second and then touched both Kurt and St. John before anyone could question her. 

"I wouldn't believe how hard it was to get them to finally go to sleep?" Evan said to Jean with a raised eyebrow.

"Well…I meant that it was actually very easy." Jean lied.

At that exact moment, the voice of Professor Xavier rang in all of their ears.  Or…their minds I suppose…

_"How is everything going with the children?"_ asked the Professor.

_"We finally got them to go to sleep but they were quite irritating." _Jean admitted.

_"I think they're awfully cute…"_ said the Professor.  _"So innocent at that age."_

_"Right." _Said Rogue.

"So anyway." The Professor continued.  "I want you three to get some rest as well.  We have a very busy day tomorrow and you three are key in the success of the day." 

"So we're not off the hook yet?"groaned Evan.

_"Silence Evan!  I shall tell you when you're done!"_ Professor Xavier scolded.  _"So go to sleep you three!"_

_"All right…" _Said Jean.

_"Very good." _Said the Professor.  _"Oh and Magnus insisted that I ask how Wanda and Pietro are doing."_

_"They're JUST fine."_ Said Jean with a sigh.

_"He'll be happy to hear.  Goodnight."_

And with that, the telepathic link died.

As for Rogue, Jean and Evan, since they did not want to disobey the Professor, they immediately hit the hay for the night.  Rogue was happy to have a room to herself for once without Kitty in there and had always thought it wasn't very fair that she and Kitty were the only ones who had to share a room.  I always found it kind of odd.  Don't you think that maybe Kurt and Scott would share a room?  Or maybe all the boys and all the girls?  No.  Everyone has their own room except for Kitty and Rogue who are forced to share one.  Oh well!  It kind of makes you think, though.  In the first Dark Horizons episode, you would think that Rogue would go after Kitty first since they sleep in the same room but instead, she left the room and then went after everyone else first and Kitty just so happened to be conveniently there.  Was she planning on skipping over Kitty?  Or maybe she just figured she'd get her on the way back.  Whichever it is, I'm sure the animators never thought that there would be someone to think about it.


	17. Very Curious

THE NEXT MORNING!!!

Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto got out of their sleeping bags.  They had had a wild slumber party playing Truth or Dare and I've Never and watching CRAZY movies but now it was time to check on their small children!

"They should be FULLY child-minded by now." Professor Xavier said as he allowed Magneto and Mystique to lift him into his wheelchair.

"I'm actually quite excited." Said Mystique.  

"You can't imagine the feelings I'm experiencing right now!" Magneto said as they got into the elevator.  They couldn't very well climb the stairs with Professor Xavier in his wheelchair now COULD they?

As soon as they got out of the elevator, they quickly made their ways down the hallway to the room of boys because it was closer.  They opened the door only to see four small boys on the floor, one hanging half off the bed as if aware of the current situation of falling and a large mound under the blankets.

"Now that's curious." Said Professor Xavier.

"What's curious?" asked Mystique.

"That is." Professor Xavier said, pointing at the big mound.

"I'm curious too." Said Magneto with a puzzled expression as he tip toed over to the bed and looked down at the five children strewn across the floor.  Then he gasped.  "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN?!" he yelled.

This, of course, caused them all to awaken and Jean to run in since she's so responsible.

"What's going on?" said Scott groggily.

"Don't worry, Wanda's in the other room." Jean assured Magneto to stop him from hyperventilating.

"But where is Pietro?!" he yelled at her.

Jean looked at the floor and then at the bed.  Slowly, she moved the covers aside ever so slightly to see Pietro's regular, teenage self lying there pretending to be sleeping.

"He's not small anymore!" whined Mystique, Professor Xavier but especially Magneto.

"It's not fair." Sniffled Magneto.

"I'm hungry!" St. John announced as he sprang up from the floor.  "Take me downstairs and give me something to eat!"

"Can't you see we're going through a crisis right now?!" Magneto said, sounding irritated.

St. John looked around.  "Well…no." he replied.

"Well we are!" Magneto said.  "So be quiet so we can work this out!  Charles, where can I find Forge?!"

"Uh…downstairs?" suggested Professor Xavier.  "My guess is only slightly better than yours is."

Magneto stomped past everyone else and then stomped down the stairs as loudly as he could in search of Forge.

"FORGE!!!" Magneto bellowed as he stormed around the house.  Suddenly, Forge was beamed into view.  Kind of like in Star Trek when Scotty beams everyone up.

"What is it?" he asked sleepily.

"It's an emergency!" Magneto cried.  "Come quick!"

Magneto then dragged Forge into the boys' room where everyone was staring at Pietro except St. John who still hadn't figured out the crisis.  

"He's back to normal!"

"So the process reversed itself…" Forge wondered.  "And Pietro just turned back faster."

"WHY?!" demanded Magneto.

Everyone in the room stared at Magneto as if he were stupid.  "Because Pietro is OH SO fast." Mystique replied.

"That doesn't mean he can just turn back to normal!" Magneto said in a voice that sounded very much like what a whine might sound like.

"Don't worry about it, Magnus." Said Professor Xavier as he led Magneto out of the room to comfort him.  "I'm sure Forge will be able to re-reverse the event somehow.  In the meantime, how about we all go downstairs and make breakfast while Jean, Rogue and Evan take care of dressing the children?"

"Well…all right." Said Magneto with a sniff.  The three of them went down the stairs and into the kitchen.  They quickly and swiftly kicked the breakfast eating New Recruits out and locked them in the basement where they had clearly escaped from.  The three of them began to make a very loving breakfast that no one would ever be able to finish but it's still fun.

Suddenly, there was a woosh and Pietro was standing behind them dressed like he usually dresses and looking like he usually does.

"Whatchya making?!" he asked.

Magneto had to hold back his tears as he replied.  "All kinds of things." He replied.  "What would you like?"

"I want…hm…" Pietro said, scratching his chin.  "I don't know!  Whatever you're having, Dad!  I like whatever you like!"  Then he ran over to the kitchen table and sat himself down.  He paused and stared at the table.  "Did I get taller?"

"Pietro, are you feeling all right?" Magneto asked.  Professor Xavier wheeled forward and put his hand up to Pietro's head.

"What are you doing?" Pietro asked.

"Just as I thought!" Professor Xavier announced.  "While his body has reverted back to it's original state, he's still got the body of a child!"

"That's like killing two birds with one stone!" Magneto said excitedly.  "I get the child who loves me without having to raise him all over again!"

"I'm so happy for you, Magnus!" said Mystique as she hugged Magneto.

"I'm confused…" said Pietro as he scratched his head. 

"I love you, son!" Magneto said as he lovingly stroked Pietro's head.

"Dad!" Pietro said.  "You're messing up my mane!"

Suddenly, everyone else walked in including all of the children, Rogue, Evan and Jean.

"I'm wearing my tie-dye shirt!" St. John announced pointing to his red shirt.

"What's for breakfast?" asked Scott.  "I want French toast!"

"I'm hungry!" Kurt said as he teleported onto the counter next to the stove.  "Can I help?"

"No Kurt." Said Mystique as she picked Kurt up, caressed him in her bosom and then placed him on the floor.  "But what would you like?" 

Wanda sat down next to Pietro.  And she stared at him.  He stared right back at her.  "What happened to you?" she asked finally.

"Nothing." Pietro replied.  "I went through a growth spurt."

"You grew a lot." Said Remy, sounding disappointed that he wasn't the biggest anymore.

"I'm the biggest now." Pietro declared.

Then they all ate breakfast!!  It was very fun.  Magneto's spirits were lifted so everyone could have a more fun time since you don't really want to be around Magneto when he's angry.  Even if he DID explode in 'Impact'.

"So whatever happened to them is eventually going to wear off?" Evan said in a relieved tone to Jean and Rogue after they had eaten breakfast.

"Thankfully." Jean said with a sigh.

"Well, as long as we don't have to babysit anymore, I don't care if they turn back or stay that way forever." Said Rogue with a sigh.  "But, since I know we're going to have to babysit again, I'm glad they're turning back."

"How about some dessert?" asked Lance as he put his glass of orange juice down.

"Yeah." Said Remy.  "Remy always have dessert after breakfast."

"Well not today!" said Mystique as she pulled off her pink apron.  "It's time for you all to go outside and play!"

"Aw man!" whined all the kids as they were shooed out to play.  

"And you three!" said Professor Xavier as he dramatically pointed to Rogue, Jean and Evan who were trying to sneak away.  "You must watch them!"

"But Professor!" they all whined but then Professor Xavier got 'that look' and they knew they couldn't disagree any longer if they valued their lives.

 "Since I'm the biggest, I'm the boss of us all!" Pietro explained as he stood in front of all the others who were still small.

"YEAH RIGHT!!" Lance said as he balled his hand into a fist.

"How come Remy didn't have a growth spurt?" Remy wondered to himself.  "Maybe he'll have one tonight."

"And my first rule is no girls allowed!" Pietro said as he pointed to Wanda and Kitty.

"Hey!" whined Kitty and Wanda since they wanted to be included.

The other boys couldn't help but agree with this rule and they all aided in the warding away of the girls.

"And my second rule is…um…" Pietro said slowly as he pondered.  "You all are my slaves!"

"No way!" said Scott.  "Don't forget, we're still older than you, even if you DID go through a growth spurt!"

"Yeah!" said St. John.  It's not like his 'YEAH!' really meant anything since he was only saying it to make it sound like he was included.  Since he was after all.  He wasn't some stinky girl who wasn't allowed to be in their club.

That's when Evan, Jean and Rogue came outside under much protest.

"All right, what can we do?" Jean said to the others.

"How about Hide-n-Seek?" Evan suggested.

"NO!!" yelled Jean and Rogue.  Evan looked slightly alarmed and mildly offended so he decided that he wouldn't be giving his input from now on.

"You three wanna join our club?" asked Pietro.  "Except for you two because you're girls.  And not you, Daniels, because I just don't like you."

"Um…sure." Said Rogue, rolling her eyes.

"Well, we'll just supervise." Said Jean.

"HEY!" said Evan because he was truly offended.  He then withdrew a spike from his body threateningly but dropped it because even though Pietro LOOKED normal, he wasn't in his right mind so Evan couldn't go around picking on him.

"Remy's da oldest." Said Remy.  "He should be the leader."

"Well I'm the tallest and I weigh the most!" Pietro said as he easily picked Remy up.  "And I can pick you up!  So there!"

"Dat's not fair…" Remy whined as Pietro dropped him on his arse.

 "Our clubhouse can be on the roof!" St. John said suddenly.  "Kurt and I were there last night and it was SO cool!"

"Yeah!" said Kurt.  "We should go there right now!"

"But not down the chimney." Said St. John.  "That just didn't work last time."

"Yeah!" said Kurt.  "Why'd we go down the chimney anyway?"

"It was YOUR idea!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" said St. John.  "I know for a FACT that it was your idea!"

"I forbid any of you to go on the roof!" said Jean.

"Well, because we're forbidden, we want to go on the roof even more." Said St. John.  Everyone couldn't help but agree so they practically ambushed Kurt to teleport them all to the roof.  And he did!!

"I can't believe they went up there just because I said they couldn't!" Jean said angrily.  Of course, she could fly so she flew up on the roof where everyone was cheering about their recent defeat over Jean.

"You all get down there right now!" she commanded as she used her telekinesis to make them all fly down to the ground.  "If anyone does that again then you'll get in big trouble!"

"What's gonna happen to us?" said Lance, crossing his arms.

"You'll…uh…go on time out!" Jean said.

"They're just bored!" said Evan.  "We have to do something to entertain them!"

"Yeah Daniels!" said Pietro.  "Take me out to ice cream!  NOW!"

Evan barely restrained himself from once again attacking Pietro.  "Why does it have to be HIM?!" he demanded.  "Why is HE the large one?!  He's just like regular Pietro…only retarded."

"Well, ice cream seems like a good idea." Said Jean.  "Let's go ask the Professor for money."

"Hey, where's Wanda and Kitty?" Rogue said suddenly, looking around.

"Oh no!" Jean gasped.  "Wanda's one of the ones I'm looking after!"

Then Professor Xavier's voice rang in their ears.  _"Oh don't worry!" _he chuckled.  _"We've had them the whole time!  Magnus is telling them silly fairy tales!…"_ He paused._  "Yes they are, Magnus!  I don't recall you ever saving the world!  …No you didn't!"_

_"Uh…Professor?" _Jean said impatiently.

_"Sure sure, go get ice cream!" _Professor Xavier said.  _"I've been reading your minds this whole time and I know what you want.  I'll pay you back at some future date that shan't be named.  And Magnus wanted me to remind you to watch Pietro with a close eye!  …Yes, I just told them Magnus, don't worry.  I would never forget!  Oh and…what's that?  Mystique says to watch after Kurt and reminds you, Rogue, to be careful."_

And that ended their little 'conversation'.

"Well, let's go!" said Jean as they all ran to the garage area.  "Everyone take your groups from before and we'll all go in different cars!"  Then she threw Scott and Pietro in the backseat of one of the cars and sped off before anyone could question her.

"Okay…" said Rogue as she grabbed Remy and Lance and jumped into the Scott Mobile and drove off, leaving Evan, St. John and Kurt in her dust.

"Well?" said St. John.  "Let's go.  I want ice cream."

"Why are we just standing here stupidly?" complained Kurt.

"Uh…I don't drive." Evan confessed.

"WHAT?!" screamed Kurt and St. John.

"I'm just waiting for them to realize that and come back to get us." Evan explained.

"But what if they don't realize it?!" Kurt asked dramatically.

Evan looked around at the garage and spotted his bike in the corner.  "Uh, I suppose I could hook a little seat in the back and a little basket in the front and we could…"

"That can't be safe!" Kurt said.

"Or…you could just teleport us there." Evan suggested.

"I don't know where it is." Kurt said, crossing his arms.

"I could BURN our way there!" said St. John.  "All I need is a lighter.  Go get it, Evan.  We'll wait for you right here."

"Just stop talking." Said Evan as he started hooking up a little seat on the back of his bike.  "Kurt, you have to sit on the handlebars."

"Why do I have to?!" Kurt yelled.

"Because you're smaller and extremely limber." Evan answered.

"Hey!" said St. John.  "I'M limber too!"

"Yeah but Kurt's like…an acrobat." Evan said.

"I'm an acrobat too." Said St. John.

"What, YOU want to sit on the handlebars?" Evan asked.

"It's better than back here!" St. John said, pointing at the seat in the back.  "If I sat on the handlebars, I'd have a much better view!"


	18. Ice Cream and Clubs

MEANWHILE!!!

"Here we are!" said Jean as she jumped out of the car.  "Good thing I knew a shortcut to the ice cream place!"

Then they all went to get in line.

"What flavor do you two want?" Jean asked.  "Mind you, you're both getting kiddie cones."

"But I want a bigger size!" whined Pietro.  "Cause I'm big too!"

"Yes but you're only…four…or five…or six…or however old you are…" Jean explained.  "Besides, you don't need any more sugar.  In fact, you don't need any sugar at all.  You always seem to be on a constant sugar high."

"Can I have chocolate?" Scott said cooperatively.

At that point, Rogue, Remy and Lance came up to the line.  A few people had gotten behind the Jean group so Rogue figured that she could just get in line with Jean.

"No!" said Jean.  "You can't cut!  You're setting a bad example for them!  Now go to the end of the line!"

"What?" Rogue said, astounded.  

"Yeah, this is the big kid group!" said Pietro to Remy and Lance.

"But REMY da big kid." Remy said.

"Not anymore." Said Pietro.  "I'M the biggest!"

"Remy's da oldest…" Remy said.

"That doesn't mean anything if I'm THIS big," Pietro said, stretching his arms out as far as he could.  "And you're only THIS big…" and then he brought his arms in really close together so they were practically touching.

"You may be THIS big," Remy said, stretching his arms out like Pietro had done before.  "But Remy not 'dis big.  Remy more like…DIS big." And then he put his arms somewhere in the midpoint between itty bitty and big Pietro size.

"Even if you were THIS big which you're not, you're more this big, then you still wouldn't be allowed to be in our club." Pietro declared.

"'Our' club?" Remy said, doing the little quotes.

"Yeah!" said Pietro.  "Me and Scott!  Right Scott?"

"YEAH!" said Scott who would definitely jump at any chance to be in the Big Kid Club.

Remy glared at Scott.  "Remy older dan Scott." He said.

"But Scott's bigger!" said Pietro.

"Come on, we have to go to the end of the line before someone takes it." Said Rogue.

"Can I be in your club?" asked Lance.

"No!" said Pietro.  Rogue then escorted Lance and Remy to the back of the line.

MEANWHILE!!!

"It stinks back here!!" complained St. John from his seat behind Evan.  "I've got your butt in my face!"

"Oh be quiet!" groaned Evan.  They were all wearing all the required protective gear.  "If I hear one more comment about me smelling bad then I'll…"

"Stop talking, your breath stinks!" Kurt said, plugging his nose.  Yes, he WAS sitting on the handlebars even though it offended him so.

Evan was tempted to jump off the bike and send it careening off a well-placed cliff with the two smidgets still on it.  But he didn't because he, luckily, is more mentally stable than oh say, if St. John were the one pedaling!  He would look at more as a, 'Hey…that'll be fun!' and he'd go down too.

"I'm pedaling to take you guys out to ice cream and this is how you thank me?" Evan said.

"Who said that?" St. John said, looking around.

"Said what?" asked Kurt.

Thankfully, they reached the ice cream place at that time.  Evan locked his bike up on the bike rack and stomped over to Jean and Rogue who were sitting at a little table enjoying their ice cream with their four small children.  Actually, three small children and Pietro.

"Oh right…" said Rogue, looking at Evan.

"Oops!" said Jean.

"Thanks a lot guys." Said Evan.

"We want ice cream!" said St. John.  "Give us ice cream right now!!  Hurry up, slave!"

"First you ignore me and now you demand something from me?!" Evan said angrily.

Then Lance shook the world for no reason.  Just because he felt like it.  So I guess he DID have a reason, just not a very good one.

Everyone glared at Lance and he only shrugged innocently as if trying to convince them that it wasn't HIM.  But everyone knew it was.  Everyone knew that only Lance could shake the world and no matter how much they all wanted to, they couldn't.  Except for Rogue but only at certain times.

"Come on, Evan!!" yelled Kurt.  "Get ice cream for us!!"

"You guys," Evan complained to Jean and Rogue.

"Just get ice cream for them." Said Jean.  

"And stop letting them push you around." Rogue added.  "Especially Kurt.  No one should be pushed around by Kurt.  Especially when he's this size."

Evan mumbled something under his breath that doesn't belong in a PG rated story as the three of them started walking towards the lines.

"I'm going to repeat those words." Said St. John.  "AND say where I heard them too."

"Me too!" agreed Kurt.  "I'm going to tell the Professor!  And my mom!"

"No you're not!" Evan said threateningly.

"Then you have to get us each a large ice cream." St. John bargained.

"A large?!" Evan demanded.  "But _I _can't even finish a large!"

"I can." Said St. John.

"It's FOUR massive scoops!" Evan continued.

"I can feel those words of the devil on the tip of my tongue!" Kurt said.  "Maybe I should teleport back to the institute and ask the Professor what they mean!  What do you think?"

"Oh yes!" said St. John.  "And I'll go burn something!!"

"Okay, fine!" said Evan with a groan.  "You can each get a large."

Meanwhile, at the table…

"Geez, Pietro, how can you possibly get more ice cream on your face than in your mouth?!" Jean said in an exasperated tone as she handed him a napkin.  "Wipe your face off!"

"No!" said Pietro.  But, almost as if he was contradicting himself, he took the napkin from Jean and wiped his face off nice and clean.  Then he got him, threw his napkin away and then returned to his seat.  This was all done at reasonably normal speed, too.

"Oh." Said Jean.  "Thank you."

"Don't get used to it." Pietro sneered.  "Slow-mo."

Then Evan, Kurt and St. John returned to the table.

"Evan!!" said Rogue.  "Why did you get them a large?!  Those ice cream are bigger than their heads!  _I _can't even finish a large!!"

"That's what I told them!" Evan sighed.

"He insisted and insisted and wouldn't take no for an answer!" said St. John as he sat down next to Kurt.

"But we're not complaining!" Kurt added.

"That's not fair!!" yelled the other four people who were forced to get Kiddie Cones.

"Give some to me!" Pietro commanded.

"No!" chimed St. John and Kurt.

"I'll let you be in my club!" Pietro said.

"We already HAVE a club." Said St. John.

"Oh really?" said Pietro.  "And what would that be?  It can't possibly be as cool as The Big Kid Club!"

"YEAH!!" said Scott.

"It is." Said St. John.  "It's the Evan Smells Club!"

Kurt burst into hysterical laughter since St. John had clearly just made all of this entirely up on the spot.

"I deserve to be in that club!" said Pietro.  "Because I hate Evan the most and I'm the biggest!"

"Oh man…" said Evan as he put his head in his hands.  Jean and Rogue couldn't help but chuckle warmly at his expense because it's not like it was happening to THEM!

"Nope!" said Kurt.  "This club is strictly for foreign people!"

"Nice one." Said St. John.

"You just made that right now!" said Pietro angrily.

"If you don't have some sort of ridiculous accent then you can't join!" St. John continued.  Then he looked at Remy who appeared as though he was going to put in his two cents.  "Uh, not you Remy.  You're just a lazy speaker.  You don't have a REAL accent."

"Dat's not true." Said Remy.

"I say it's true!" St. John said.

"In dat case…" Remy said, looking around for available people.  "Remy and Lance gonna make a club."

"What?" Lance said because he had been zoning out thinking about how lucky he is to be able to shake the world.

"Yup!" said Remy.  "We made a club.  It called da 'Old Kids Club' cause Remy da oldest.  Though, unlike da Big Kid Club, Remy let everyone join, even if dey young…like Lance."

"That is SO a spin-off of our club!" said Pietro.

"YEAH!!" added Scott.

"ALL RIGHT!!" said Jean suddenly.  "Let's head back to the mansion!!"

"Don't you dare leave without us!" said Evan, grabbing Jean's arm.

"Evan, you've got your bike." Jean pointed out.  "You can't just leave it here."

"We can put it in your trunk." Evan said.

So they put Evan's bike in Jean's car.  And then Evan ran off to use the bathroom and everyone forgot about him and left.


	19. Welcome Back, SlowMo

"I'm so glad that we didn't have to ride behind Evan again!" said St. John to Kurt as they both hopped out of Jean's car.

"Oh yeah…Evan…" said Jean nervously.  She told Rogue to watch all the kids as she went to go and get Evan.

"Man, why do I always get stuck with watching all the kids?" Rogue wondered even though that was really only the first time it had ever happened to her so far.

"Hey…I'm back to normal!" said Pietro suddenly.

"What'd you say?" Rogue said, turning around.

Pietro glared at her.  "Nothing!" he said.

"YEAH!!" Scott cheered.

"Back so soon?" said Professor Xavier as everyone walked in the door.

Rogue looked at the clock.  "Geez, we were only gone forty-five minutes?" she whined.

"What do you plan on entertaining the children with now?" asked Magneto.

"Why can't you guys watch them?" Rogue asked.  "I mean, you ARE the ones who want to keep them like this, aren't you?"

Mystique, Magneto and Professor Xavier looked at each other briefly.  "That was out of line Rogue." Said Mystique.

"Well AREN'T you?" Rogue persisted.

"Where are Jean and Evan?" Professor Xavier asked, changing the subject.  Just as he said that, Jean and Evan strolled through the door.  Evan looked a tad bit grumpy and Jean looked the same she always does.  Your perspective of Jean can decide how she looked.

"I KNEW something smelled bad!" St. John said, plugging his nose.

Kurt joined in.  "Evan smells!" he agreed with a laugh.

"Since when did they become such good friends?!" Evan demanded.  "If we split up into groups again, someone ELSE has to take them this time because I don't want to have to deal with them saying that I smell bad!!"

Jean and Rogue looked at each other.  Then they grabbed their two individual male children and ran off before Evan could complain ever so unjustly anymore.

"Aw man, we're stuck with Smelly Evan again!!" exclaimed St. John.

"PROFESSOR!!" yelled Evan.

"They're just children." Said Professor Xavier.

Evan groaned and stomped off.  Kurt and St. John shrugged and frolicked after him while trying to come up with more comments about his foul smell.

"Do you suppose I should adopt St. John as well?" Mystique said suddenly.

"Why?" asked Magneto, knowing St. John's previous psychopathic history.

"Because I only want Kurt to be happy!" Mystique answered.  "And Kurt is my son after all."

"They're both going to eventually turn back, you know that of course." Professor Xavier pointed out.

"But I want to at least see Kurt's face when I come up to him and tell him that he has a new big brother!" Mystique explained.

"I don't think it works that way." Said Magneto.

"Can we just pretend it does?" Mystique pleaded as if Magneto and Professor Xavier had the authority to dub that okay.

They paused.

"Say…where did Wanda and Kitty wander off to?" Professor Xavier asked.

"Let's go find them." Said Mystique as if losing small children in a huge mansion was no big deal.  But then again, SHE lost her child in Germany.  And then found him.  And didn't do anything about it.

Meanwhile!!

"What do you guys want to do?" Jean said to Scott and Pietro.

"Play a game!!" Scott yelled.

"What game?" Jean asked.

"A FUN one!!" Scott screamed, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Well, what would YOU consider to be a fun game?" Jean continued since she didn't feel like brainstorming and coming up with a game by herself.

"One that doesn't include girls or little kids!!" Scott said with a laugh.  "Right Pietro?"

"Uh…you do that." Pietro said.  "Frankly, I don't even know why I'm here.  This whole setting is rather awkward for me."

Jean paused.  "Are…you in your right mind?" she asked.

"Yes." Pietro replied.  "You weren't there when I announced that I was back to normal?"

"I guess I missed that." Jean said with a shrug.  "But it's good to know that you can now take care of yourself so I won't have to worry about you.  Now you can be a babysitter."

"YAY!!" cheered Scott.  "TWO babysitters for me!!"

"No." said Jean.  "You're probably the most well behaved one here so this is the last group that needs a second babysitters.  Maybe we should let Pietro help a group that's having a little more trouble."

"Do I have to?" Pietro asked.

"Yes." Said Jean.  "I've been watching you for a day so I think you owe me."

"I don't owe slow-mos anything." Pietro said, crossing his arms.

"Then I'll show everyone the pictures of you that I took while you've thought you were small all this time!" Jean threatened.

"You wouldn't!!" Pietro gasped.  But then he stopped.  "What does it matter?  Everyone hates me anyway because I'm a jerk."

"Then I'll hang them up in school!"

"I don't go to school anymore."

"Fine…I don't have pictures…" Jean said, getting a devious grin.

"I knew you didn't." Pietro said.

"But…I'll come in the middle of the night and zap you with Forge's invention, thus making you small again!!" Jean said, feeling proud of herself that she thought up a threat that she could actually go through with.

Pietro's jaw dropped to the floor.

"I'd do it." Said Scott, nodding his head as if he had any idea what was going on.

"Fine, but I refuse to do any strenuous work." Pietro declared.

"How nice of you." Said Jean, doing a little jig on the inside.  Then she led Scott and Pietro down the hallway, searching for the other groups.  Finally, she came across Rogue sitting on the floor playing Solitaire.

Jean looked around.  "Where are Remy and Lance?" she asked.

"Sleeping." Rogue replied, pointing at the bed to see Remy and Lance sleeping peacefully.  "Ever so soundly."

"Sleeping.  Right." Said Pietro.

"Yes, sleeping." Rogue answered.

"At noon?" Pietro said.  "Out of nowhere?  Both of them?"

"Yes." Said Rogue, eyeing Pietro.

"He's back to normal." Jean explained.

"I KNOW you were there when I announced it." Pietro said, pointing at Rogue.

"HURRAY!" said Scott happily.

"Well, it doesn't look like you need any help." Jean observed.

"Yes, considering they're both sleeping." Pietro added.

"They ARE." Rogue said.  But she was clearly in Denial City.

"Let's go find the others." Jean said to Pietro and Scott.  Then they continued down the hallway and couldn't seem to find Evan and his group.  So Jean used her telepathic powers to locate them to finally discover that they were outside!!  So they all went outside.

And when they got there, they saw a frightening sight!  Evan was tied to a tree and St. John was striking two rocks together as Kurt leaned over him watching intently.

"KURT!" St. John yelled.  "I said get me FLINT!!  What is THIS?!"

"I don't know!" Kurt said, jumping back.

"What's going on out here?!" demanded Jean.

"They sneaked up behind me and tied me to this tree…" Evan whined.

"And now we're gonna burn him!!" St. John declared.  "If we could only get even a spark…"

"Oh no you're not!" Jean said as she used her powers to take the stones out of his hand.

"HEY!!!" yelled Kurt and St. John.

"Pietro, I think Evan needs your help the most." Jean said, turning to Pietro.

"Oh yes, I agree." Pietro said.  "I will help Evan out."

"Good!" said Jean as she took Scott and left.

Evan gave an exasperated sigh.  "Are you back to normal?" he asked.

"Yes." Pietro answered.

"Then untie me!" Evan commanded.

"Well…" Pietro started.  "As I am old enough to realize that burning you is not a good idea no matter how much I would like to see it happen, I will prevent these two from inflicting any fatal harm on you.  But…that does not mean I will help you watch them."

"YAY!!" cheered St. John and Kurt.

"WHAT?!" Evan yelled.  "Pietro, when I get out of here…"

"Uh huh." Said Pietro as he sat down on a lawn chair lounged back comfortably.  "I could get used to this babysitting thing."

Just then, Kitty and Wanda walked around the corner.

Pietro stared at them for a minute.

Then Magneto, Professor Xavier and Mystique raced outside and sighed with relief when they saw Kitty and Wanda alive and well.

"Thank heavens you're all right!" Magneto exclaimed as he grabbed Wanda and squeezed the living daylights out of her.  She finally had to zap him senseless so that he would let go.

"And what is going on over here?" Professor Xavier asked as he noticed Evan, Kurt and St. John.

"They ambushed me and tied me up!" Evan whined again.  "And Pietro won't help me!"

"Pietro!" said Magneto in a disappointed tone.

"I JUST got here." Said Pietro.  "And I'm making sure that he doesn't actually get burned!"

Magneto glared at Pietro.  "Are you…?"

"Back to normal?" Pietro finished.  "Yes, I am."

Magneto sniffled and then erupted into waterfall tears and Mystique patted him on the back saying, 'There, there.'

"SO IT'S NOT PERMANENT?!" wailed Magneto.

"Well, this is perfect now!" said Professor Xavier as he returned from untying Evan since he does, after all, have warp speed in his wheelchair.  "Now you, Pietro, may watch Kitty and Wanda and WE won't have to worry about them anymore!"

Then the three of them left.

"But I don't want to!" Pietro yelled after them.  

Just as he was about to pursue them…"All right, Pietro!" yelled Evan.  "You and me!  Right here!  Right now!"

"PLEASE." Pietro sighed, waving Evan off.  "Don't you have some toddlers that you have to watch?"

Evan turned around to see that Kurt and St. John were missing.  He slapped his hands to his cheeks.  "WHERE'D THEY GO NOW?!"  Then he ran off to find them.

Just as Pietro started patting himself on the back and chuckling to himself for his recent triumph over Evan, he felt a tug on his shirt.  He looked down to see Kitty and Wanda staring at him.  "What?" he demanded rudely.

"We didn't get to go out to ice cream with everyone else." Said Kitty.  "Can you take us?"

MEANWHILE!!!

Rogue was still sitting down on the floor playing solitaire by herself when she suddenly heard someone move.  She stood up to see that Remy was now sitting up from his place on the bed looking discombobulated.  Without hesitation, she reached out and touched him and then he was sleepy by again!

"I SAW THAT!!" Jean yelled from the hallway.  Rogue spun around.

"Saw what?!" she said innocently.  "I was merely wiping the sleep from his eyes when he decided that he was still tired!!"

"That is so very wrong!" Jean said, shaking her finger at Rogue.  "They should be allowed to run about and frolic!!"

"But…they're ANNOYING…" Rogue argued.

"Oh come on, you've got the least annoying ones out of everyone!" Jean pointed out.

"What about me?" whined Scott.

"I meant BESIDES you, Scott." Said Jean.  "You're on a level of your own."

"YAY!!" said Scott.  "I'm precious!  Right Jean?"

"Ever so much!" said Jean as she hugged Scott.

"Jean…he's like…five." Said Rogue, turning her head away.

"I'm SEVEN." Said Scott.

"Whatever." Said Rogue.  "You still shouldn't be doing that, Jean."

"Hey, don't turn this around at me!" Jean said defensively.  "YOU'RE the one who keeps touching them with your horrible life sucking powers!  You're going to do something damaging to them that will effect them in the near future!"

"Yeah right." Said Rogue.  "I think I'M the one being mostly effected by this."

"Then stop!" Jean demanded.

"Fine, YOU take them!" Rogue said.  "Because I don't want to have to deal with them and since you're just SO offended by them being asleep, you can watch them from now on!!"

Then Rogue stormed down the hallway.

"FINE!!" Jean yelled to her.  "You'll see that it's really not that hard if you get them to LOVE you!"

"WHATEVER!!" Rogue yelled back.

"_I _love you, Jean!" said Scott.

"Oh Scott!" said Jean.  "I love you too!"

MEANWHILE!!!

"Come on!" whined Kitty.  "Take us out to ice cream!"

"NO!" Pietro yelled.

"I COMMAND you to!" said Wanda.

"Yeah right." Said Pietro, not fearing Wanda in her small state even though she could very well fry him if she wanted to.  But she'd have to catch him first!!  And then he ran off faster than the speed of light only to crash into Rogue only after taking a few steps.  "Watch where you're going!" yelled Pietro.

"Excuse me, I'm not the one running at the speed of light in a little yard!" Rogue reminded him.  "You don't have any excuse to be stupid anymore!"  They both stood up and then brushed themselves off.  "What are you running away from anyway?"

"Wanda and Kitty want me to take them out to ice cream." Said Pietro.

"So take them." Said Rogue.

"I can't drive." Pietro said.

"Just run there." Rogue said.  "It's not like they're heavy."

"No." said Pietro just because he could.  No one could FORCE him to run if he didn't want to.  And he DID.  So he ran off.

Rogue gave an exasperated sigh just as Wanda and Kitty jogged around the corner searching for Pietro.

"Where did my stupid brother go?!" Wanda demanded.

"Uh…nowhere!" said Rogue.  "You two want to go out to ice cream?"

"YEAH!" said Wanda and Kitty at the same time.

"I'll take you." Said Rogue.  And that's exactly…what…she did.


	20. The Maddness Continues

MEANWHILE!!!

"I see you're awake!" said Jean excitedly as Lance sat up in the bed.  Jean and Scott had been playing handslapping games.  

"Don't call Rogue!" Lance said in a scared tone.  "I've been asleep all day!  It's not fair!"

"Oh don't worry!" Jean said with a chuckle.  "I wouldn't dream of it!  As a matter of fact, I think a bit of fresh air would do you children good!  We just have to wait for Remy to wake up!"

"Come play Tarzan with us!" Scott urged.

"Only if I get to be Kerchak." Said Lance as he crossed his arms.

"No!" Scott laughed.  "The HANDSLAPPING game!"

"How do you play?" asked Lance as he sat down in the circle.

"All you have to do is…" started Jean but then she continued to explain as opposed to quietly trailing off.  We just don't feel like explaining.  But Jean always does.  You know how enthusiastic she is.

"That's…stupid." Lance said.

"No it isn't!" Scott yelled defensively.

"It IS a girl's game…but it's still fun!" Jean agreed.

"It's a girl's game?" Scott said, confused.

"Yeah!" Jean replied.  "All hand slapping games are!"

"Well…I don't really want to play hand slapping games anymore…" Scott decided since he didn't want to be caught looking unmanly and he had to set an example for Lance who was only a little kid.

"That's okay!" said Jean.  "We'll just do something ELSE to occupy our time until Remy wakes up!  Have you two ever made a friendship bracelet before?"

"How do you make one?" asked Scott.

"It's easy!" Jean answered, pulling a box of string out from underneath her bed and opening it up.  (Yes, in case you didn't know, she had moved everyone to HER room so they wouldn't be in the random room that Rogue was in.)  "All you have to do is weave the string together to make pretty designs!"

"Did you say, 'pretty'?" Scott said hesitantly.

"Um…MANLY designs!" Jean corrected herself as she pulled out the colors that were blue and red and black and all those other manly colors that were hardly touched.

"Can have some blue…and red…and black?" Lance asked.

"Certainly!" Jean replied.

Jean passed out all the strings and told him how to perfect their knots and braids and all other kinds of things that she convinced them was manly at the time but we all know very well that what they were doing was pretty much the opposite of manly.  Pretty soon, they all got passed their reject stage and were getting decent so Jean could go off and make one too!  She knew, however, that once Remy woke up, they were going outside to play and get some fresh air!

MEANWHILE!!

Pietro was humming merrily to himself as he ran around at warp speed without a point of interest.  He didn't know why he remained at the Xavier Institute so he figured he would just run around the world a few times since he was so bored but he just so happened to stumble across Evan.

"WHERE ARE YOU GUYS?!" Evan was screaming through cupped hands.

Pietro ran over.  "You're so pathetic, Daniels!" said Pietro.

"What do you mean, Pietro?!" Evan demanded angrily.

"You can't keep track of two kids!" Pietro reminded him.  "How do you manage to lose them as often as you do and the only way you find them is because they run up behind you and ambush you?"

"Kurt's a teleporter." Evan said.  "And since they've become such good friends, they teleport TOGETHER.  AWAY from me.  Except for when they want to ambush me."

"Well DUH." Said Pietro, rolling his eyes as if he was dealing with a little kid.  It is kind of surprising how well Pietro is taking the fact that he's been really messed up for the past few days.  Then again, he probably went through a state of shock for about five seconds and then got over and would have completely forgotten if not for the fact that everyone was reminding him about it.

At that point, they heard a BAMF sound!  They turned around just in time for St. John and Kurt to jump Evan.  They happened to knock him down in his surprised state.

Pietro shook his head in a disappointed tone and grabbed St. John and Kurt each by their collars, lifting them off Evan.

"Hey!!" said St. John.  "We were going to tie Evan up and then burn him!"

"And the fire would be really big because Evan smells so bad!" Kurt added.

"How would my stench make the fire bigger?!" Evan demanded, brushing himself off and standing up.  "And I do NOT smell!"

"Yes you do." Said St. John.

Pietro then put St. John and Kurt down.  "Daniels, you are a poor excuse for a human being." He declared.  "I'm ashamed to be the same species as you!"

"Come on, Pietro, I don't need YOU ganging up on me too!!" whined Evan.

"It's so sad and pathetic that I actually feel slightly sorry for you." Pietro sighed, looking as though he might be sincere.  "In a sad, pathetic sort of way."

"So you're gonna help me?" Evan pleaded, getting big puppy eyes.

"Well, OTHERWISE, I'd just be running around the world…AGAIN." Pietro concluded.  "And I also want to prove to you that I'm better at watching two kids than you are since I am, after all, better than you at everything."

If Pietro wasn't offering to help him, Evan probably would have hurled a spike at him at that point.  "FINE." Said Evan, crossing his arms and looking annoyed.

"So what we should do is separate them." Pietro said.  "Because one is a teleporter and the other one is just nuts.  Without Kurt, St. John CAN'T do anything crazy.  And without St. John, Kurt WON'T do anything crazy."

"I would have done that a long time ago if I had someone else to take the other one!" Evan said.

"Then we should…" Pietro started but then he looked down to see that there were no small children to be found.  "EVAN!  You lost them again!!"

"It wasn't me!!" fretted Evan.

"You go that way, I'll go this way!" Pietro said as he ran off.  Before Evan could even turn around, Pietro returned.  "Did you find them?" he asked.  "I looked everywhere."

MEANWHILE!!!

"And that's how you weave a flower wreath!" Jean announced as she, Lance and Scott stood there holding their flower wreaths.  Well…Jean had a flower wreath, Scott had a string of flowers tied together and Lance really only had a bunch of flowers.  Remy just kinda stood there.  He was still not entirely awake.  Lance and Scott had gotten impatient and violently shaken him awake.

"I don't really want to wear a flower wreath." Said Lance as he tossed his flowers behind his back.

"I want to wear mine as a crown!" Scott said as he crowned himself with his circle of flowers.  "I want to wear YOURS on my head, Jean!"

"Oh Scott!" said Jean said as she blushed.

Lance pretended to throw up.

Meanwhile!

"I hate training sessions with Logan!" whined Bobby as he and the New Recruits exited the Danger Room.  All of their clothing was ripped and torn in PG places so that means that while male chests were EVER so exposed, females were still conservatively covered.

"Yeah!" chimed Amara.  "He always makes us work too hard!"

"Let's go make ourselves some sandwiches." Said Ray.

"We don't have any bread." Said Jamie.

"I don't like bread with my sandwiches anyway." Said Tabitha.

"Then what can we do?" asked Jubilee.

"Let's go wreak havoc!" Sam said excitedly.

"YEAH!!" Roberto cheered.  

"HURRAH!!" Rahne screamed.  "Let's go!"  Then the New Recruits did a secret handshake and went to go and wreak havoc in the world.

"Hey you guys!" Logan called as he came out of the Danger Room.  "You can't just go wreaking havoc!"

"Aw…come on!" said all the New Recruits in unison.

"What's going on in here?" Storm asked as she walked in.

"That's what I'd like to know!" Beast announced.  Suddenly, Angel flew in.

"Hi everyone!" he said.  "What's going on here!"

"Storm just said that." Said Alex as he poked his head in the window.

"Hey guys!" said Colossus.  "I am to deliver a message!"

"Let's ALL just wreak havoc!" said Blob as he bashed through the wall.

"That'll be fun!" Toad cheered from his perch atop Blob's shoulder.

"ALL RIGHT!!!!" They all cheered as they ran out of the hole that Blob had created and went to go cause havoc as a big odor!

MEANWHILE!!!

"If I were St. John and Kurt, where would I be?" asked Evan out loud to himself.

"If you were St. John and Kurt, you'd be TWO people." Said Pietro as he thwapped Evan on the head.

"SO?!" Evan demanded.  "I didn't mean LITERALLY, I meant MENTALLY!"

"Well, that would be four times more brains than you have now." Said Pietro with a smirk.

"Are you implying that I only have half a brain?!" Evan yelled.

"You're right." Said Pietro.  "That's giving you WAY too much credit."

"Why I outta…" Evan said angrily as he got a bunch of pulsating veins.

Before Evan could finish, there was an explosion over off in some other direction.  They both automatically assumed that it was Kurt and St. John so they followed the humungous mushroom cloud in search of the two children.

MEANWHILE!!!

"PETE AND PETE!!!" yelled Scott as he practically slid across the ground as Jean attempted to run up and grab him.

"You got away just in time!" Jean said.

"Yeah!" said Scott who, might we add, was still wearing his flowers.  Just in case you never played this game when you were little, they're playing Television Tag.  Mainly, it's tag but instead of just running until you both get tired, the person who is being chased squats down and yells out the name of a television show before the tagger can tag them.

"Hey, you can still tag me!" said Lance from across the yard as he stuck his tongue out at Jean.

"I'll get you!" Jean declared as she went to go chase after Lance but Lance sat down.

"ANGRY BEAVERS!!" he yelled.

"You escaped too…FOR NOW!" Jean said dramatically.  Then she looked at Remy who had said, 'Power Rangers' a LONG time ago and was not getting up.  "I think there should be a time limit for how long you can stay down with one show."

"Fine." Said Remy as he stood up and sat back down.  "Salute Your Shorts."

"Hey!" said Jean, putting her hands on her hips.

"Come and get me, Jean!" said Scott, jumping up into the air.

"That's just what I'll do!" said Jean as she chased after Scott but, of course, slowed her maximum speed down so that Scott could escape her wrath for now.

"ALADDIN!" Scott yelled, sitting down.

"Hey!" said Lance.  "You can't say MOVIES!  Only television shows!!"

"There's an Aladdin television show!" Scott said defensively.

"I'VE never seen it." Lance said, crossing his arms and pouting.

"That doesn't mean it doesn't exist." Scott said.

"I believe you, Scott, don't worry." Said Jean.

"Of course you believe him!" whined Lance.  "You like him more than me!"

"That is NOT true and you know that, Lance Alvers!" Jean scolded, shaking her finger at Lance.

"Don't worry about him, Jean, he's just a little kid." Said Scott.

Remy gave and exasperated sigh and lied down on the grass.

Meanwhile…

"Maybe we should go to Professor Xavier and have him find them using Cerebro." Said Evan in a defeated tone to Pietro.

"And risk looking like a failure like you, Daniels?" Pietro asked, appalled.  "No way, slow-mo.  We're finding those two."

"But we don't even know where to look!" whined Evan. 

"Maybe YOU don't." said Pietro with a grin.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" yelled Evan.  "You said you searched EVERYWHERE!!!"

"Well, when I said everywhere I never said that I looked…" started Pietro but then he ran off.  He came back a second later.  Maybe even LESS than a second later.  "Nope, I was wrong.  They weren't there either."

Evan groaned.  "What are we supposed to do?!"

"Well, you know them better than me so where would they be?" Pietro asked as he scratched his chin.

Evan thought for a moment. "Well…anywhere except my room." He answered finally.

"AHA!" said Pietro, pointing at Evan.  "That's what they'd expect you to think!  That's where they most likely are, thinking that we would never think to look there since we would figure that they'd be anywhere except there!"

"You think they're smart enough?" Evan asked.

"Sure, why not?" Pietro said with a shrug.

"Wait…why didn't YOU check there?" Evan questioned.

"It smells." Pietro said plainly, crossing his arms.

"IT DOES NOT!!!" Evan screamed.

"See you there, slow-mo!" said Pietro as he ran off at the speed of light.  Of course, Pietro was in Evan's room in less than a second to find Kurt and St. John jumping on the bed chanting.

"OH NO!!" yelled St. John, pointing at Pietro.  "They found us!!"

Pietro dashed over to them both and put each of them under his arms.  "All right, normally I wouldn't care but while I'm in charge, you two aren't going anywhere!" he declared.  Also at the speed of light, (is this getting redundant?) Pietro ran back to where Evan had just begun to start moving.

"Found them." He declared.  "As you can see, I am a superior babysitter."

"Then YOU take them!" Evan said as he stomped off.

"Yeah right." Said Pietro as he really only just stood there watching Evan leave as if he expected Evan to turn around and apologize.  "Yeah right." He said more loudly just in case the Slow-Mo hadn't heard him the first time.

"Evan SMELLS!" said St. John as Kurt burst into hysterical laughter.

"So very true." Pietro agreed.  Then he ran back over to Evan.  "Yeah right." He said, making very sure that Evan had heard him.

"Evan, we read your diary." Said Kurt.

"You did not!!" yelled Evan.

"Daniels…you keep a diary?" Pietro said with a raised eyebrow.

Evan paused and wondered why he had gotten angry in the first place.  "Actually… no.  I don't." he said.

"Sure." Said Pietro.

"But we read it!" said St. John.  "We knew it was yours because your foul stench lingered!"

"Evan, stop that." Said Pietro.

"Stop what?!" demanded Evan.  "THEY'RE the ones making fun of ME!"

"I know." Pietro admitted.  "I was telling you to stop letting them make fun of you.  It's really sad."

"I don't need you to join in too!!" yelled Evan.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't do that." Pietro said, turning his head away.  "I think these two are insulting you my share too.  I tried to be involved in the Evan-mocking, but you're just taking all the fun out of it."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" yelled Evan.  (He seems to be doing a lot of 'yelled Evan' and 'demanded Evan's.  We're running out of way to make Evan sound angry!!)

"It means that all my clever and witty insults are going to waste because you're letting yourself be insulted by a couple of kids." Pietro explained.

"YAY!!" cheered St. John and Kurt.

MEANWHILE!!!

"What time is it, Charles?" asked Magneto.

"Well…it's almost 7:00." Professor Xavier replied.

"Wow!" said Mystique.  "Time sure does fly when you're just sitting around doing absolutely nothing!"


	21. Chef Boyardee, Firefly Then to Bed

MEANWHILE!!!

"GASP!" Jean gasped, looking at her watch.  "It's time for dinner!  We were just having such a splendid time that we forgot all about lunch and it's already time to eat dinner!"

"HURRAY!!" cheered Scott.

"Remy knew he was strangely hungry…" Remy said thoughtfully.

"What are we going to have?" asked Lance.

"I don't know!" said Jean.  "It depends on what's there!"  Then she insisted that everyone grab her hands and frolic with her to the kitchen.  Of course, since Jean is reasonably tall ANYWAY and at the present time, Scott, Lance and Remy (who are all usually taller than her) were all small and children-ified, it proved to be much of a problem for them to skip as if they were going down the Yellow Brick Road on their way to see the Wizard of Oz.

And wouldn't you know it?  When they actually DID get around to arriving, everyone else was there too!!  Everyone else being Rogue, Wanda, Kitty, Evan, Pietro, St. John and Kurt.  Yes…I know we accidentally forgot about Rogue, Wanda and Kitty for a while but oh well.

You want Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto to be there?  TOUGH!!

"All right!" said Jean, looking around in the cabinets.  "What do you all want to eat?"

"How about we make something that we can eat too?" Rogue asked, thinking back to the Spongebob Squarepants Macaroni and Cheese.

"No!" Jean declared because she is becoming obnoxiously righteous kind of like she ALWAYS does whenever we write something.  "We must make something that will make the children happy!  Yet, it must be healthy as not to poison their appetite!"

Pietro, Evan and Rogue all gave Jean questioning looks.  Aw, underworld, the kids gave her one too.

"So…" Jean said, unfazed.  "How about…soup?  Chicken noodle?"

"In the shape of Spongebob?" asked Scott.

"I wish there were some in the shape of 'David the Gnome." Lance said.

"Well…I don't think chicken noodle soup comes in any shapes at all…" Jean said in a tragic tone as she pulled a can out of the cabinet.

"Do you have any Chef Boyardee?" Kurt asked as he teleported on the counter next to the cabinet.  He grabbed one of the cans.  "Waldo!"

"Hey, down off the table!" Jean commanded, grabbing Kurt and putting him on the ground.

"I want Chef Boyardee with Waldo!" Kurt yelled.

"Fine!" said Jean.  "Is that all right with everyone?"

"YEAH!!!" cheered all the people who were less than ten.

"Jean…" whined Pietro, Evan and Rogue.

"Good thing we have about seven cans of this!" Jean said happily as she used her powers to make all the cans open themselves and pour into a pot.  But then she used manual labor to actually turn on the burner.  Kurt watched her intently, making sure that they were actually shaped like Waldo before teleporting back to the table.

"Can't we have something else?" Pietro asked as Jean joined them at the table, waiting for the Chef Boyardee to cook.

"Pietro Maximoff, you are a guest in this house!" Jean said, shaking her finger at him.  "You're lucky you're getting anything at all!"

"Well." Said Pietro, looking offended.

"So, what should we do while we're waiting for it to cook?" Jean asked.

"Let's play Red Light Green Light!" Lance exclaimed, sounding excited.

"I meant something we could do while we stay seated here at the table." Jean clarified.

"Oh." Said Lance.

"How about we talk about what we're going to do AFTER we eat?" Rogue suggested as she stood up and looked for something to eat other than Chef Boyardee.

"That's a good idea!" said Jean.  "Let's go around the table and everyone can say what they want to do!  We'll start with you, Scott."

"Cause I'm your favorite." Scott finished.

"No, just because you happen to be sitting next to me!" Jean said.

"Yeah." Said Scott.  "But you sat next to me because I'm your favorite."

"I love you all equally!" Jean assured everyone else.

"Don't worry, Jean, it's okay for you to have favorites." Said St. John.  "I mean, we're Evan's favorites!"  He pointed to himself and Kurt.

"No you're not!!!" Evan yelled, turning into a giant pulsing head with fangs.

"Is the stove a electric stove or gas stove?" St. John asked, completely changing the subject and ignoring Evan who was puffing smoke out of his nose and ears.

"Why do you ask?" Jean said quizzically.

"Jean…" Rogue said, shaking her head.

"Well?" St. John asked.

"It's electric." Rogue answered.  "No one has gas stoves anymore."  St. John snapped his fingers.

"SO ANYWAY…" Jean said.  "We all have to go around the table and say what we want to do!  And, since Evan is on the OTHER side of me, he'll go first!"

"Evan wants to clean himself." Said Kurt.  "Cause he smells."

"Evan LIKES smelling." St. John added.

"STOP THAT!!!" Evan yelled.

"Evan, calm down, they're just children." Jean said.

"Yeah, you're making it to easy for them to push your buttons." Pietro added.

"I don't have to deal with this anymore!!" Evan yelled as he stood up from the table and marched angrily out of the room.

"Well, HE won't get any dinner!" said Jean to the rest of the table.  Wanda and Kitty decided to engage themselves in a hand-slapping game since they were bored with the table conversation.

"Remy wanna do somet'in else." Remy said randomly.

"Maybe the Chef Boyardee is done by now!" Jean said since she didn't want them to be bored anymore.  She leapt up and checked on the soup to find that it actually was!!  WOW!!  So she pulled out ten bowls and poured equal amounts of Waldo Chef Boyardee in each one.  Then, so she didn't have to make many trips, even though they would have all been very loving trips, she used her mutant powers to make the bowls and spoons fly to the table.

"Eat up everyone!" Jean declared.

"Jean, I already told you, I'm not eating this." Said Rogue, pushing the bowl away since it obviously offended her.

"Well then you get nothing at all!" Jean said.

"Whatever." Said Rogue since she didn't really care anyway.  So, after they polished off the Chef Boyardee, they had to decide on what fun activity to do next.  Mind you, it was probably about 8:30 (yes, it took them that long to eat) so they couldn't do anything outside since it was dark so they had to stay inside!!  Well, obviously if they can't go outside then they have to stay inside.

"How about we watch a movie?" Jean suggested as she pulled a bag of movies that she rented from Icbool's Temple, the local movie renting place of Bayville.  She had gone to pick these movies up when no one was looking.

"What movies did you get?" Scott asked as he grabbed the bag and looked inside of it.

"I just want to watch the Mystery Files of Shelby Woo." Said Lance as he turned the television on WITHOUT the remote and started pressing the buttons to change the channels.  But, alas, he was pressing the TV/Video button so he wasn't really proving anything.

"We have 'Unico', 'The Last Unicorn', 'Firefly's Adventure', 'Moon Dreamers', 'The Land Without Feelings', 'The Land Before Time', 'Strawberry Shortcake' and 'Rainbow Brite'." Jean said, reading off the movie titles.

There was silence for a minute.

"Jean, I guess you haven't noticed the unbalance of testosterone among this group yet." Pietro said.

"What do you mean?" Jean asked, genuinely confused.

"THOSE ARE GIRL MOVIES!!!" yelled all the little boys at the same time while the girls named off a few movies that they would like to watch.

"That's not true!" said Jean.  "We can all watch a movie together regardless of gender!"

"I want to watch Firefly's Adventure because that's the only one that I haven't seen!" Kitty said.

"What about the rest of you?" Jean asked.

"NONE OF THEM!!" yelled the boys.

"Well, since the only suggestion I got was Firefly's Adventure then we're watching it!" Jean concluded as she put the movie into the VCR and pressed play.  She used her powers to force everyone to sit down on the couch even though it was quite obvious they didn't want to watch the movie.

"I want to watch 'The Point'!" Lance exclaimed with a groan.

"Lance, that movie was on crack or something." Said Pietro.

"And it was made in the 60's." Rogue added.

"Oblio." Lance said, crossing his arms and frowning.

So they all watched the movie.  It was very fun.  And, in case you didn't know, Firefly's Adventure is a My Little Pony movie so it was VERY feminine so Pietro had to leave halfway through because he was feeling insecure with his masculinity.  Not that Pietro is particularly masculine, but it was a VERY feminine movie that even one such as he would feel uncomfortable.

The movie was about a half an hour long…but… it came with all kinds of special features so it ended up being an hour and a half long so it was about ten o'clock when it ended.  This meant, of course, that a few of the kids fell asleep afterwards.  Lance and Remy stayed awake because they had slept all day, Kurt and St. John didn't sleep because they were having a staying awake contest, Wanda and Kitty didn't either because they had just had ice cream and watched an enthralling movie.  So that left Scott.

"He's so precious when he's sleeping!" Jean whispered as she scooped Scott into her arms like a little baby.

"Jean, stop it." Rogue said, shaking her head.

"Where's Pietro and Evan anyway?" Jean said, changing the subject.  "Both of them should be helping us put them all to bed!"

"They just cause more hurt than help." Rogue said with a sigh.  "We'll be just fine putting them to bed by ourselves."

"All right!" said Jean.  "I'll meet you upstairs!!"  Then she raced upstairs at lighting fast Pietro-like speed, leaving Rogue to deal with everyone except Scott who was being precious and asleep.

"Everyone, go upstairs right now!" Rogue commanded.

Everyone looked at her and then ignored her.

"It's really late." Rogue said.

Everyone ignored her some more.  They didn't even bother looking at her this time though.

"Remy and Lance know the consequences for bad behavior." Said Rogue, crossing her arms.

"She's right, guys, we should go to bed now!" Lance said, springing up immediately.

"Why?" asked St. John.  "What's she gonna do?"

"You don't want to know." Said Remy.

"She'll have to catch us first, right Kurt?" St. John said to Kurt.

"YEAH!" said Kurt as the two grabbed hands and teleported away.

Rogue moaned and complained for a minute or two before finally deciding that she would just put everyone else to bed and then go and find the other two and SEVERELY punish them!  So she led the remaining four up the stairs to Scott's bedroom since everyone had kind of mutually come to the agreement that they would be sleeping there.

Jean was already there tucking Scott into bed who was sleeping ever so preciously.

"Where are the other two?" Jean said in a disappointed tone as she put her hands on her hips.

"If you remember correctly, you're the one who raced up the stairs as fast as you could as to avoid helping me put the others to bed." Rogue reminded her.  "Considering that six is kind of a difficult number, two of them managed to get away while I was occupied with the rest."

"You should have just ASKED for help!" laughed Jean.  "You put these kids to bed and I'll go off to find the other two."

"Thanks." Said Rogue sarcastically as Jean frolicked off.  "Everyone get in bed."

"We still haven't changed into our pajamas!" said Wanda as if Rogue had done something to offend her.

"You're taking too long!" Rogue said.

"You haven't given us a chance!" Wanda said angrily.

Rogue rolled her eyes and wondered why she even BOTHERED so she just approached each one and tapped them gently on the forehead and they were all out like a light bulb before they even could realize what was happening because by now, Rogue had mastered her forehead tapping technique.  She had also mastered her, 'Get everyone into bed so it looks like they preciously fell asleep' technique as well.

It was then that Jean returned with a small child under each arm.

"If you know the right place to look then they're not hard to find at all!" she said happily.  "Wow!  You did a really good job getting them all to bed!"

"It's one of my natural talents." Rogue admitted.  And it wasn't a lie either.

"Well, in that case, you wouldn't mind putting them to sleep too!" Jean said as she literally dropped St. John and Kurt in Rogue's arms and dashed out of the room at a speed that rivaled Professor Xavier's warp speed drive.

Rogue sighed and put them both on the floor.

"You two aren't going to go to bed willingly, are you?" she said.

"Nope!" they said in unison.  So you know what happened next.  Rogue had more time to practice her two techniques.

And then she turned out the lights and closed the door behind her.


	22. The Quickly Resolved End

THE NEXT MORNING!!!

"YAAAAAAAAAAAWWWN!!" yawned Professor Xavier as he sat up in bed and started swinging his arms around crazily.  "What a beautiful day!"

"Hello?" said Mystique as she sat up in the bed next to him.

"I HATE BALOGNA!!!" yelled Magneto as he threw his covers off of him from the bed next to Mystique.

"Today, I think we should spend more time with the tykes." Said Professor Xavier.

"That's a good idea Charles!" said Magneto.  "We probably don't have much longer until they all grow up like Pietro did and I certainly don't want to miss out on Wanda like I missed out on Pietro."

"Or like you missed them both the first time around." Professor Xavier reminded him.

"And I want to do all the things with Kurt that I missed because I accidentally dropped him in a river and didn't feel like getting my clothes wet at the time!" Mystique declared.

"Three cheers!!" said Professor Xavier.  "Hip hip!"

"HURRAY!!!" cheered Magneto and Mystique.

"Hip hip!" said Professor Xavier.

"HURRAY!!!" cheered Magneto and Mystique.

"Hip hip!" said Professor Xavier.

"HURRAY!!!" cheered Magneto and Mystique.

The three stared awkwardly at each other.  "Okay…so why did we do that?" asked Mystique finally.

"Because I wanted to see if you would do it." Professor Xavier admitted.

"Well, you two are my best friends so why wouldn't I?" chuckled Magneto.

Then they all chuckled together.

MEANWHILE!!!

"Okay everyone!" said Jean as she ran into Scott's room and turned on the lights as fast as she could.  "Time to wake up!  GASP!!!"

You may or may not be curious as to why Jean gasped so dramatically.  Well, I shall tell you whether you are or not.

Everyone had grown to their regular sizes!!!  ARGH!!  This meant, of course, that absolutely no one was left in the bed considering it's only a twin Scott-sized bed and there was about fifteen people sleeping in it.

Then, Professor Xavier, Mystique and Magneto ran in.  (With the exception of Professor Xavier who WHEELED in at warp speed.)

"OH NO!!" gasped Magneto has he put the back of his hand on his forehead and then fainted.

At the sound of commotion, Pietro zoomed in faster than the speed of light.  (You know, everyone is really fast this morning.)  When he saw everyone in their state of waking up, he laughed at their expense.  "Ha-ha!" he laughed…at their expense.  "They still have to go through being large with a small mind like I did."

He looked strangely satisfied that he had already gone through all that and not the least bit embarrassed that he had already gone through that.

"What's the sense in that?" said Jean.

"You're right." Said Professor Xavier as he clapped his hands twice.  Forge came running over in a matter of seconds.  (Yes, Forge is a fast one too.)  "Forge, are you sure there is absolutely no way to turn them back?"

"I already told you." Said Forge.  "I could have reversed it a long time ago."

"Oh." Said Professor Xavier, scratching his chin.  "I must have been ignoring you."

"You must have been." Said Forge with a nod.

"Well?" said Professor Xavier.  "What are you waiting for?!"

"Turn them back!!" bellowed Mystique.

"FINE!" said Forge as he pulled his machine out from behind his back and zapped everyone in one swift motion.

"YAY!!" cheered everyone as they threw a party.

Scott was thinking: Even though I was small and stupid, I got to spend a lot of quality time with Jean.  YAY!!

Remy was thinking: Remy can't believe dat he even _t'inks_ in t'ird person and with an accent.

Kurt was thinking: Was? Erwarten Sie mich, auf englisch auch zu denken?

St. John was thinking: I really want to burn something.  Wait a second…is that a lighter?  No…it's just a chair…

Wanda was thinking: This is all Pietro's fault!  This is all Magneto's fault!!  I hate them BOTH!!  DEATH on them both!!!

Kitty was thinking: Well…I got to know Wanda a bit…I guess that's cool…

Lance was thinking: Kitty rocks my socks!!  And I rock the world!  And I SHAKE the world too!  YEAH!!!  (Lance shakes the world)

Pietro was thinking: I'm so fast.  That makes me better than the rest of the world.

Rogue was thinking: I wish I could touch people.

Jean was thinking: Even though Scott was small and stupid, I got to spend a lot of quality time with him.  YAY!!

Evan was thinking: I do not smell!!  Kurt and St. John are gonna pay!!  GRR!

Professor Xavier was thinking: Hm…the right turn for the joystick on my wheelchair seems to be acting up…

Magneto was thinking: I really wish Wanda and Pietro were still small.  Oh well.  It's not like I played with them or anything.

Mystique was thinking: Wow.  I was only there to say all those extra things that the Extremely Out of Character Professor Xavier and the Extremely Out of Character Magneto would not have said.  But it's not like I'm IN character though.

Forge was thinking: Where IS Forge Two?  I hate it when he leaves!  No note!  No phone call!  What am I going to do with him?!

Waldo was thinking: Hey, I'm sure glad you found me!  Now we go and eat my specially advertised pasta!!

THE END!!!

YAY!!


End file.
